StarFox Above and Beyond:  Army of One
by SyxxFox
Summary: After Adventures before getting to Corneria.  Fox goes to inspect a distress signal solo.  He has SpecialForces Training and a Sniper in the Above and Beyond Books.  Fox gets shot down and by the end Krystal returns the favor and deciedes to join the team
1. Pleased to Meet You Take my Hand

Ch. 1: Pleased To Meet You Take My Hand.

How he longed to be back to the Starfox mother-ship. Fox McCloud sat in the captain's seat of the massive Great Fox. It was such big change from the small combat Arwing. It usually was not as physical for him as the past days. Running around performing tasks all over planet made him extremely tired, but didn't show it. He had gone two days without rest. It did not matter. Fox and rest of his Mercenaries had earned major pay. With the Great Fox being in disrepair, the whole team wanted to get back to Corneria.

Fox tapped at the display on the keyboard on his computer, reviewing the mission. According to the mission log he had traveled over 100km. and that was just on foot. That was way too much. It was a good thing the mission had such a big incentive. Of course the team would get any money they could, this one paid especially well. Since Cornerian High Command found out that Andross had something to do with it, the Starfox team received a massive bonus. It would be good to feel rich again. The Starfox team had been out of work for around 8 years. The Great Fox needed some major updates. Not to mention the Arwings needed to be replaced. The old Landmaster tanks they had aboard would also get traded in for brand new ones. As for the Blue Marine, it had been built by Slippy and his father. It would probably stay with them as long as possible. It had only been used one time. That had been over eight years ago so the team would either keep it as a last resort or salvage it for parts.

"Oh yeah, Fox?" Fox turned to meet the gaze of the old hare. Peppy had been part of Team Starfox from the beginning. The hare was even a part of the original Starfox team. He had been with Fox's father, James McCloud when he had leaded a valiant attempt to defeat the evil scientist Andross. Of Peppy's age he was obviously in no condition to pilot an Arwing. So he sat on the bridge of the massive and powerful Great Fox. Peppy didn't want to be under used or feel like he wasn't contributing to the team so now he worked on his maps and research. Peppy was in charge of intelligence for the team now, "I almost forgot! I received this message from Krystal thanking you for saving Dinosaur Planet."

A holographic image appeared on the hollow-panel. Fox stood up. It was her… Fox glanced at her cute blue muzzle and couldn't help to look at his feet, "Hi Fox. I would like to thank you for saving me… I am so sorry we didn't get a chance to talk, there is just one thing I wanted to say…" the crew looked to back of the bridge as the door wisped open, "and that's to say thank you," She strolled to the command team on the bridge.

Fox stared at her in awe. And quickly looked away, he thought to himself, "How childish," then saying aloud, "well, uhh… ok… ok, I mean, uhh it's no big deal really," Fox put his hand behind his head as if he were scratching his neck. The vulpine attempted to hide the glow of red that began to flow across his face. But it only grew brighter as Krystal drew closer to him.

"Your not shy, are you fox?" Slippy said. The vulpine shot a glare at Slippy. Slippy had been one of Fox's closest friends for years. Though, he was quite clumsy and often found himself being saved by the other mercenaries. For what he lacked in skill and agility of flying the Arwings, he made up for with his mechanical knowledge. He was very resourceful and intelligent. He and his father had built the Blue Marine for the Starfox team.

Fox knew he was being made fun of. The truth was he wasn't shy. He had never been this way before. She was beautiful. When Fox had first seen the young vixen she was trapped inside a crystal at the top of Krazoa Palace. He could have stayed there for hours.

Falco nudged Fox forward. Falco had just returned to Team Starfox moments ago. He left the team a while back, in search of action. The sense of adventure lived in his blood. This is what made him an amazing fighter pilot. He was easily on of the best in the galaxy. Falco wore a black leather jacket and sunglasses sat on top of his head. Though he was arrogant and cocky, Fox still liked the bird as a close friend even though he had not seen him for years.

"My censors indicate a rise in Fox's temperature," ROB said, "are you ok Fox?" He was more embarrassed then ever. It was not the robots fault though. He was programmed to be attentive to relevant medical issues. The vulpine had inherited the robot along with the entire ship from his father about a decade ago, maybe a little less. Fox's face was now glowing red. He felt very uneasy and lightheaded. Maybe because he hadn't slept for the past days or maybe is was now because Krystal looked directly at him as she spoke. He felt more embarrassed then ever. Like a young kit, foolish and childish, a love sick pup. Krystal just gave a playful smile toward him.

"Pull it together!" Fox told himself. He had never had a problem talking to girls before. He only managed to stumble a few clumsy words out of his mouth, "I'm gonna be just fine… but uhh… what are you doing here?" Fox paused, "I thought you were mad at me for…" the next part sounded dumb in his mind, "saving you."

"Well wouldn't you be a bit cranky waking up after spending what felt like eternity in glass?" She remembered waking up peering up the very top of Krazoa Palace, holding onto the rouged but gentle paws of another fox, and a handsome one at that. Though dangling from over a hundred meters, Krystal took a quick look at the other, meeting his bright green eyes. She had a headache was disoriented at this point from the crystal chamber exploding. It was true, for if not for this vulpine she would be still trapped inside that crystal. That… or dead, "Oh, I am sorry if I…"

Fox quickly cut her of, "No, I understand," he thought back remembering the first time he saw her. Trapped and helpless, the vulpine could have looked at her forever lost in her radiant blue fur. When he had looked at her through the glass the expression on her muzzle had changed, like when he had came in had comforted her. The blue that covered her body was odd but it was one of the things what made her beautiful, "Well is there any place we can take you to? Where is your home?"

"Fox I…" the vixen started but was shortly cut off by Peppy.

"Fox, she is a Cerinian, a planet that was destroyed years ago. I have done some research while you were on Dinosaur Planet, but as far as the Lylatian Data-base tells me… and as far as anyone knows there were no survivors," everyone on the bridge turned to the blue fox. She felt singled out.

"That explains a lot," Fox said not realizing how inconsiderate he sounded until the vixens gaze slowly drifted to the floor, "Oh I, uhh… sorry."

"Way to go Foxxie! You really have a way with the woman!" Falco exclaimed. Slippy just giggled.

Fox ignored them, "Where do you go? Were have you been living for… years?" Fox asked the vixen slowly and quietly. He hated the way he sounded. His voice had made him sound like he was asking a sad question. It probably just made her feel worse. When his father had died he remembered not wanting to talk about it. But after such a small amount of time Fox had accepted the fact that his father was not coming back. He moved on with his life and now it didn't hurt to talk about it at all.

"I-I live in my ship," She paused, "It is all I have left from my parents, this and my Staff, and the clothes I have on my back. That's probably why I was so agitated when you took it. It's all I have got…" The clothes she wore weren't very much, the armor pieces she wore on her shoulders and forearms looked ancient, though they still were tough and authentic. She wore small cuts of cloth covering her. Fox also noticed tattoos on her arm and thigh. He tried not to play attention to it but caught himself glimpsing at it several times.

Fox felt foolish, "Why did I do that?" He thought to himself, then had the courage to ask, "But… your staff? I just found it on the ground in the Hallow. I received a message from someone… it seamed to flow through my body…through my head and I could feel someone's breath in my ear."

"I can answer that Fox!" The old hare explained, "During my research of Planet Cerinia I found myths that the inhabitants of this planet were 'blessed' with telekinetic powers."

"Is this true?" Fox asked.

"Yes partially," she turned her gaze to the vulpine, she caught his gaze too. And for the first time noticed the red in his face, she giggled, "We…or I can't exactly read minds but can connect with physiological messages telekinetically."

This was a lie though. The vixen could read minds. It could sometimes be extremely difficult with distractions of large groups of people. She hadn't quite mastered the skill and she had much to learn. But when she was young her planet was destroyed, before she could master the full technique of telekinetic abilities. Krystal was still very skilled at it though. From her lost planet of Cerinia everyone could read minds. It kept everyone from keeping secrets from each other. It made for a calm and easy existence. Her planet had lived in nothing but peace except everyone was trained to fight just incase the time had come when they needed to.

Krystal herself had been trained in a special form of hand to hand combat and as a healer. This and with her powerful Staff could make her attacks powerful and sometimes lethal if the correct technique was used. Everyone had shared thoughts with each other so there was no reason for anyone to be ashamed, or embarrassed. It also kept conflict on the low side too. If people knew that someone else didn't like them they would simply avoid each other. No conflict involved.

She didn't want to admit it though. She had already come to the conclusion that the existence of this other race simply didn't posses the ability that she has taken for granted. It could be sometimes difficult to translate the thoughts of the others. The technological power of the Great Fox was something that Cerinia had lacked. Her planet didn't focus on technical up rise but more on prosperity. Light flooded from the bases of the walls illuminating the floor. Buttons and control panels flashed. These were all big distractions that blocked out the concentration needed to sense the thoughts of others. It was still possible but it took energy and concentration.

She had already had problems trying to decipher the odd looking digits and symbols that riddled the ship. In time she would learn. She had already learned to speak their language. What they called Lylatian was simple and easy to understand. The same not could be said the same about the symbols and odd looking characters that operated the entire ship. She couldn't even read them let alone write them.

It relived Fox to hear that she could not read minds, "Well, then if you… uhh don't want to leave well…I … you don't have too," the vulpine put his hand behind his head again, unintentionally showing the pink in his face even more. The Bridge fell silent. Falco, Slippy and Peppy looked at Fox dumbfounded.

"Oh no!" Fox thought, "I messed it up! Grrr… come on someone say something!" Fox then continued, "I mean… she is obviously a fighter. Look how long she…" Fox then spoke directly to Krystal, "I think you make a good addition to the Starfox team."

"Becoming more like your Father everyday Fox… why, I remember when he met your mother, he was so shy and paralyzed," the hare began to ramble.

"Yeah Fox!" Slippy exclaimed. Falco just stood there smiling

"NO! Uh… not like that! I the…umm," Fox felt lightheaded again. Why was everyone making fun of him? He wished that they would all just shut up.

Krystal laughed, "I don't think that I would make a very good addition to the team. I don't know the first thing about flying the small aircraft that you guys do. All mine is good for is getting me around," the vixen looked at the deck again, disappointed, "besides I am still looking for the cause of my planet's destruction… of my parent's death. Just bring me to Corneria, and I will be out of your way."

"Krystal…" the vulpine replied softly.

"Hmm?" The vixen looked back up to Fox.

"You don't have to go this alone. We can hel…" the Mercenary was cutoff.

"It's not up to you," she felt agitated not yelling but she spoke with a tone, "This is something I have to do alone!" She then paused with a look of surprise on her face. She had never had outbursts like this one before, "Were did that come from?" She thought to herself, "Maybe I am tired."

"You don't have to decide now," Fox had been startled by her up rise of anger. But he knew how to keep cool and keep it simple.

"Fox, I want to find the reason for the destruction of my planet."

"Oh that?" Peppy tapped at the keyboard in front of his seat. Peppy didn't mean to, but he sounded smug like he had all the answers to life. He was wise but there was only so much a person could possibly know, "It appears that the sun that warmed the planet had simply burnt out. But it doesn't quite add up, the star was young. It shouldn't have burnt out for billions of years to come. Cerinia cooled in a matter of days. The residents knew that something was wrong when the star simply disappeared from the sky. The Cornerian data base indicates that the young and the brightest were evacuated from the planet to carry on the existence of their race. This could mean that there others of the Cerinian entity still alive."

Krystal remembered this day. The thought of it still haunted her. Occasionally she would have bad dreams about it too, about her mother and fathers ship being shot down and her in a separate one. She felt helpless. That was many years ago. The hare wasn't entirely correct either. There was more to it then their blue sun just burning out. There were enemies that had tried to extinguish her race. That didn't matter to them though.

"Well," Fox stuttered, "If you don't want to leave then you don't have too. In the end it's your call. I'm just offering."

She actually began to consider the offer of the vulpine, then shook her head, "No I would only be a burden."

"Ok, if you say so. But the offer stands. ROB, how long until we reach Corneria?" Fox spun around to face the robot. ROB was in charge of piloting the Great Fox.

"Calculating…" the robot paused for a moment, "at cruising speed we will reach the Cornerian space docks in approximately 40.67 hours and counting."

"I think I am gonna turn in, I need some rest. Krystal?" Fox looked over to see the vixen's bright moon-like eyes, "You can spend the next two nights in my quarters. I'll go ahead in sleep in the lounge. Peppy will show you were it is when you guys are ready to go to bed."

"Fox, you don't have to do that for me."

"Relax, it is the least I can do for you."

Krystal could sense that the vulpine had other thoughts in is head. The red fox's mind raced, he knew he wouldn't go to sleep for hours to come. Not until he could clear his mind from thoughts. Fox left the bridge.

In due time after talking with Peppy and the rest of the mercenaries for a while, she began to tire. Peppy led her to the quarters of the vulpine, "Here it is Krystal. Go ahead and make yourself at home. There is a shower in the back if you would like to have one. Can I get you anything else?"

She shook her head and thanked the hare, sending him on his way. It was a little uncomfortable being waited on. It would only last a short time though. Krystal sat down on the red fox's bed. It was extremely comfortable and large compared to her own. She had to reflect on what had happened.

Thinking back to the point where she had released the Krazoa Spirit from her body into the shrine at which she stood. She couldn't remember exactly what had happened. Except an ape of some kind, the one that had pushed her into the reverse gravity field sending her to the top of the palace trapped in a crystal. The crystalline chamber was very uncomfortable, small and cramped. She found herself struggling to get out a few times, feeling claustrophobic.

The ape was so familiar though, like she had seen it on her planet before. But for some reason she couldn't sense the danger. She couldn't sense the thought waves. Could his mind have been conceded? Was he a thoughtless drone? Or had she just let her guard down? The last option wasn't likely though, but yet it was still possible, even though she had not let it happen before. Maybe she had been too concentrated and exited of saving the planet.

It didn't matter now. When she was trapped in that crystal, she could feel the life being drawn out of her, by some powerful force. She had remembered a red fox to come and visit her on occasion. Though she could not see him she could here him and she could sense him.

The fox had once called her "beautiful" she remembered. Every time he came near to her or even entered the place it calmed her. Like he was her guardian even though she didn't even know who he was or what he looked like. The last time he had come to visit he brought some sort of space craft with him. When the last Krazoa Spirit was returned she felt confused as the power of the spirits entered her body, then left in a quick burst. She heard words, something along the lines of, "Wake up." Then the chamber exploded as she reached out to grab something, anything, a fall of that proportion would surely kill her.

She found refuge holing onto the familiar power of her own staff. The same one that she sworn she had lost. Suspended in midair until the staff was pulled up, and a paw reached down toward her. This is when she had me the bright green eyes of McCloud, her hero. He was the nearly the exact same as she had pictured him. She often would dream about him too. She thought of him of very kind to do such a thing, even though she could have been evil. It was a "Pleased to meet you take my hand" sort of moment. And her stomach felt full of butterflies to meet the handsome vulpine.

The one that this other race called "Andross" rose from the top of the palace. She had at this point taken her staff back from the red fox. The Lylatian language was easy to speak and she had been studying it as the one as she now knows as "Fox" explored the planet. The words he spoke were childish, but it gave him a boyish charm. As he retreated to his own shuttle to attack this "Andross" more directly she was firing wildly into the air. She was lucky to have caught up to the Great Fox before it broke orbit with the planet.

The new technology aboard the ship was more then she could possibly handle all at once. She found it hard to concentrate enough to reflect back and read minds of the others. In due time they would find out of her ability, but she didn't want then to know just yet. It was still fun for her to play with the minds of the others and explore the wide range of emotions. Fox was the one who seemed to be the must fun.

He expressed many different emotions. Some of witch she had already witnessed from the vulpine alone had been shame, compassion, nervousness, anger, guilt and shyness. All these emotions were new to her. Fox had also proven himself to be pure of heart, for only those who possessed this quality could enter the Krazoa shrines. This fact interested the vixen for knowing more about him. Yes, this McCloud fellow was defiantly unique from the others. The fact that he had a pure heart gave him a trust worthy quality.

Fox's mind hummed with activity. He was tired but he couldn't help to review the mission he had just been sent on. He thought about Tricky and the other Earthwalkers. He only met a few but they seemed to be valiant defenders of the planet. The Earthwalker tribe was rouged and tough.

The ancient Krazoa that inhabited the planet protected Sauria altogether. They could sometimes be annoying and had tests that seemed so lifelike even though some of them had just been illations. It took cunning and ability to pass each test. He thought back to the test of fear.

This meant the Krystal was probably pretty smart. Not to mention that she had spent multiple years alone. Yes, she was defiantly a fighter, but something about her just didn't feel right to the vulpine. She was beautiful, and Fox often found himself stumbling over words when he talked to her. He had never been this way before, even with his last relationship. But that one didn't work out either. He found himself interested in learning more about the young vixen. From what he understood she was only 17, this was no good for him. Fox had just turned 26. She was much too young even though something about her made her look like she was older then she claimed. She looked and acted much more mature then the age of 17. He dismissed Krystal from his mind and retracted his focus back onto the mission.

Fox had been beat up, but aside from fighting Andross and the giant Redeye, his body had come back to the Great Fox relatively undamaged. The world of Dinosaur Plant was ancient. Fox couldn't help but feel a little uncomfortable being there, that and the fact that everyone seemed to need his help all the time. Even though it was a nuisance, he was often rewarded. Still, he couldn't help to feel agitated when the dinosaurs got themselves into trouble.

A lot of weird things happened on that planet, most of which Fox didn't seem to understand. Like the whole "Gate Keeper" business and the planet had too many weird magical histories to it, it made the vulpine uncomfortable since his world rotated around technology. When Peppy had spoken to him over his communicator the first time he was at the Volcano Force Point Temple, he spoke of how the magical forces tore the planet apart and how the Spell Stones were strategically placed to stop the flow of energy.

Fox didn't understand this, and the plot became even more confusing as the Krazoa came into play. Good thing the young Earthwalker Tricky had tagged along, he may have even still been there if it weren't for him. That or dead. It had bothered him that he couldn't use any weapons on the planet. He often had the urge to grab the LSR2 Sniper Rifle that sat under the seat of the Arwing, but the incentive was too great. If he would have used a weapon, pay could have been deducted from his salary, or completely taken away.

The annoying Sharpclaw often ganged up on him. Fox found himself in a lot of fights simply trying to survive. Any weapons would have helped a lot. He thought back to the test of combat. But Krystal's Staff would have still been the most helpful. It wasn't that efficient power wise but it easy to recharge. The upgrades helped him get trough passages and defeat enemies. He could have done with out it. Fox could have put a large explosive charge on every door he needed through and any place he wanted to go as well, it would have taken a lot of room and would have been an inconvenience to carry around, but it could have been done. Though if he wanted to he couldn't, a D22 charge was classified as a weapon so it could not be used. Overall the Staff was probably the best thing he could've had.

In a lot of other places he found himself stumped. Just after landing the Arwing for the first time on the planet's surface he had to run around talking to the Thorntail tribe witch inhabited the Hallow. Many of them were a burden, some were selfish, others were quiet, and more yet were whinny and unhelpful. Another thing that annoyed the fox was how much some of them took a simple question that lead up to a whole conversation or yet another mission for the vulpine to accomplish. It was ridiculous.

There were some "characters" on the planet too. One on which was a greedy old shop keeper. At first the vulpine thought it was weird to see such a dinosaur that could float in the air. But after witnessing all the other things that had happened there, it seemed completely normal by the end of his tour of duty. It was kind of nerve wracking to be around him too. The shop keeper would always have his eye on you. Fox had once tried to look at something he didn't quite have the money for and was yelled at by him.

And that Warpstone, Fox couldn't help but chuckle to himself every time that he met this creature. The Warpstone was so loud and obnoxious. People could here their conversation from kilometers away. He was very helpful too, that is after Fox gave him a gift. He also liked some of the Snowhorn, often they were very helpful. Most of them had quite a good attitude too.

All of the tribes he had met had their ups and downs. The only one that the vulpine couldn't seem quite eye to eye with was the Lightfoot. They were all so selfish and most of them were nothing but liars. Thanks to the help of a Cloudrunner Fox managed to make them see his way. They even rewarded him with a Krazoa Spirit. But still, Fox didn't really ever want to see those buffoons again.

And Krystal… she was more of a secondary or bonus objective at first. But after it came to his knowledge that the Krazoa were needed to bring the planet back together she became one of the primary targets. He would have felt guilty for leaving her there. He wondered if he would have gone back for Krystal if the Krazoa had not been required to bring the planet back together. Then he remembered he trapped and helpless in the crystal chamber and how beautiful she had been and how her fur glowed. Yeah, he probably would have.

All in all, it was a pretty successful mission. Minimal mistakes were made, and besides fighting and getting eaten by monsters and having combat with the Redeye King. He had managed to come back in one piece. Even managed to make a bunch of new friends, it wasn't very often that a mercenary could do this. Content with the mission and how well he had done he left the papers on the table. Tomorrow he would have to do a whole report on his mission in order to receive his pay but it wouldn't quite take all day maybe only a few hours if he concentrated and completed the mission review before all the paper work. Exhaustion took over the vulpine. His mind at ease, sleep soon took over.

Krystal laid down in Fox's room, reading the thoughts of McCloud. He thought very logical, if he was in trouble, his training would take over. It amused her how he disliked many of the tribes on Sauria. It saddened her though. Krystal wanted to be the hero of Dinosaur Planet. She didn't want to be the damsel in distress. But it had been for the best. If she had never been trapped in the crystal she would have never met the handsome Fox McCloud.

His thoughts were always so calm too, for the most part anyway. He was something that Krystal had never really met before. Her own parents had died when she was 13. It wasn't easy for her. She had lost her friends, family and even her whole race. Krystal shook her head, hating to think about this.

She was flattered to know that he would have come back for her even if it wasn't necessary for his mission. Even though she was a complete stranger to him, Krystal herself thought if she would go for him if the tables were turned. She refocused her telepathy back onto the mind of Mr. McCloud, and soon found herself in a deep sleep. Little did the vixen know that the tables were about to be switched and it would be up to her to save him.


	2. Behind the Scope

Ch.2: Behind the Scope

Small red and black targets shattered at the end of the range. The fox lifted his eye from the LSR2 that rest in his shoulder. He loved the raw power of the sniper rifle. It could easily take down targets from over two kilometers away. He loaded another shell into the chamber. The rifle didn't have a magazine, this proved to be a nuisance in combat. It wasn't meant for that sort of use. Snipers often operated behind enemy lines and were sly and mysterious. If you were hit by this huge shell there was no surviving. The sniper's barrel widened at the end indicating that it was silenced and had a flash suppresser.

It was odd though. The powerful sniper rifles that were issued to the Cornerian Army were still powered by the old unconventional gunpowder shell. All the rest of the military's weapons where powered by a Plasma Core excluding the Rocket launcher and machine gun. Actually the only things that were powered by the Plasma Core were his Class D Blaster, the newer Class C Blaster and the powerful force of the shoulder mounted Plasma Cannon. Though they were not as effective to such a range that a bullet was, it did relinquish the thought of troops having to carry extra ammunition into combat. Leaving free space for other things such as rations and medical packs, it also got ride of the burden of carrying extra weight. But the snipers hadn't quite evolved that far.

The range was fairly small. It had stray burns and huge holes on the backstop originating from the Blasters most of the crew carried around and the LSR2 Sniper Rifle. Music sung from the speakers that had been placed in the hull. It was the sound of the electric guitar, it calmed him. He would never dream of playing music in a firefight, it was much to distracting. When Fox was in the Arwing he often did play music, unbeknownst to most of the other mercenaries.

Fox's Blaster was different from the rest of the teams. It matched the power of the standard Military pistol that had been issued out to the other Mercenaries, but it was larger and more bulky. It lacked the ability to fire fast. Fox only used it because it was the one his father has given him for his thirteenth birthday.

He rolled it out of the holster and bared it in front of his face, quickly sending four rounds down range, turning the target into molten steal. The barrel smoked as Fox remained still, looking down the sights. Fox had been trained in all forms of combat, his melee skills were demonstrated deeply in his last adventure.

A large tube sat on the table near the firing booth, he hated it. It was the Rocket launcher, the extreme recoil made the fox jump every time he fired it. The sheer size of it made it "inconvenient" to carry around, not to mention the ammunition it fired was large and heavy. It slowed him down a lot too. The weapon in the eyes of the vulpine was almost useless. He could find his own way around armored vehicles. Besides it wasn't safe to fire the weapon within the hull of the ship.

Fox remembered back to his days at the "Corneria Army Academy." His friend Bill was beside him the whole time. This is where Fox had become a Sniper, snipers always operated in pairs; one spotter and one shooter. Bill and Fox were the best of the best.

The two of them had only ever seen combat on a few occasions, both of them received an Army Commendation Award for holding the Cornerian front lines of Plant Katina for over three hours by theme selves, awaiting reinforcements. The mental effect that snipers had on their enemy was enormous. He and Bill alone had pinned down a whole platoon of Andross's troops. If one target was dumb enough to move forward or pop his head out of cover for too long, his comrades would soon see him collapse to the ground, dead. Soon after this Fox'sfather James McCloud died. That is when Fox decided to drop out of the Army, and take over Team Starfox.

"Fox you can't go!" A dog in the barracks of the Academy spoke to McCloud.

"I've got to. I have to find out what happened to my father," Fox festooned his rifle to the outside of his rucksack.

"But what about us? I thought we were going to be the best soldiers in the military?"

"Well you have to go on and achieve that for both of us, ok Bill?"

"Hey man I feel for you, but you can't just run off," Bill contacted his arm.

"I'm in charge of Team Starfox now, I'm not running off," Fox left the door with huge backpack that clung to him, "See you Bill."

Fox fired again, shattering another piece of steal. The vulpine hadn't been in a lot of ground combat fights since, but for his age he had seen a lot of horrible things. More then anyone should have seen in a full life time. The worst of witch, holding a body of one of his fallen comrades as his life slipped away, waiting for a medic. Fox despised this, though he has had Special Forces Training, he learned nearly nothing about being a medic. He still had the basic skills though.

His father had put him behind the wings of his Arwing since he was young. Not to mention the flight instructor at his Academy had trained him too. Peppy had said that Fox had learned from the best. But he hadn't been a great pilot until he met the arrogant and cocky falcon and the mechanical genius Slippy. They honed their skills together, and in due time got them selves into the small, agile Arwing fighters. Along with the help of Peppy who now grew too old to be at the seat of an Arwing for more then one or two hours at time.

Fox's Arwing spun, narrowly dodging lazar fire. Pulling the trigger and taking down another enemy fighter just about grazing the other Arwing that was being chased.

"Whew! That was a close one!" Slippy spoke truly through the radio, "Thanks Fox!"

"Come on frog-boy! Pay attention!" Falco's voice blurted through the speakers of the Arwing.

"Oh come one Falco give it a rest! Shut your trap for once!"

"Don't worry about it Slip, it's what I do."

Fox loaded another shell into the rifle, "Hey!" He recognized the voice immediately. Falco stood at the door and cradled a small pistol in his hand, "Where you been?"

"Uh, sleeping," the Fox replied giving the falcon a look of stupidity, "but what are you doing here?"

Falco laughed and shrugged. He wore a black leather jacket and sunglasses on his head. He looked down on his Blaster, "Well, I guess it's been a while since I fired this thing, and was gonna come down here to practice up!"

Fox nodded, "Alright Falco."

"You still have that old piece?" He nodded his head motioning the Blaster that rest on the table beside the Rocket launcher.

"Yeah I do, it's from my father and I don't really want to get ride of it if I don't have too."

"Oh yeah… sorry man, I guess I forgot."

"Its fine, I'm comfortable with it," The vulpine spun around placing his eye to the scope and popped another target at the very end of the range.

"You still got it Fox!"

"Yeah, I get in as much practice as I can, but I hope I'll never have to use it again," Fox meant this. He didn't mind the thought of shooting down enemy space craft. But the thought of sending troops to an unexpected death didn't feel right anymore. Fox knew he needed to practice, just incase he did need to some day.

Falco laughed, "Alright Foxxie!" The bird stepped up to another firing booth, just beside the fox's.

"So what have you been up to?" Fox closed the bolt on the rifle.

"Well, I've kinda been roaming around. You know looking for odd jobs around the place. What ever I can do to get by, gotta look out for number one eh?" The bird flicked the safety switch on the pistol up, "As you can see… it didn't quite work out," the pistol kicked his palm as bolts of plasma exploded from the barrel. The first and second shot missed, but the last one found its target and washed over it, "Huh, guess I'm a lot rustier then I thought. What about you guys Fox? What have you been up to?"

The sniper round snipped through the air, "As you can tell by the ship, we haven't had all that much work either. Good thing we got pay coming, this place needs some upgrades, and repairs. And it's a good thing you came around yesterday or else, I would have toast."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Falco nodded his head, "don't you get al mushy on me now, eh Foxxie?"

"Oh relax. And by the way thanks."

"Don't worry buddy, its part of the job."

Fox nodded his head, closing the bolt. The sound of the action made McCloud feel so strong, and invisible.

"And that Krystal…" Falco said.

Fox jumped. The sniper's shell over shot its target by over a half a meter missing its mark by a long way off. He didn't expect for him to say this, "Oh, uhh… yeah… her."

"You like her?"

"Well uhh, I… I guess, naturally I would."

"Heh!" Falco laughed, "So that means yes?"

Fox was silent. Falco was setting a trap and a good one at that. There was no safe answer. So he remained quite.

"Don't worry about it," the falcon then said moments later.

"Look, I've got bigger fish to fry. Besides I am not ready to settle down. Even I was, we only just met and she's leaving," Fox hesitated to say the last thing but went ahead with it anyway, "It can be tough to get in a tight relationship being a mercenary and all. Besides I don't even know if she likes me."

"Like you Fox?" Falco said smugly trying to mentally corner the vulpine but the tables were switched on him without him even realizing.

"You remember Katt Monroe?" Fox switched the tables.

Falco shuddered, "How could I forget her! God give me some space woman!"

Fox laughed at the avian's expense, "Don't worry Falco, It's under control."

"Maybe for you McCloud! I could careless if Monroe ever finds me again. But you two would make a cute couple," said Falco.

"Dude," Fox was starting to get upset with the falcon, "Give it a rest already. She's leaving when we get to Corneria. It's as simple as that."

"Oh really?" Falco asked.

"Yeah, really," Fox fired the rifle letting the bullet cut through the air and strike the target with the utmost accuracy and power.

"Remember back in grade school? When you and I met? Before you transferred to the Army Academy?" Falco grabbed the same model of the LSR2 sniper rifle that Fox had. And Fox notice him struggle trying to remember to work it.

"Yeah. What about it?" Fox let the spent shell casing fall to the floor.

"Well after that when you came to find me to help take on Andross…" Falco got cutoff.

"That was a little after grade school Falco."

"Well… whatever. You gonna let me finish?"

"And?" Fox said impatiently.

"Look I am going to just get it over with. I'm sorry for running off on team Starfox," Falco said with a hint of embarrassment as his pride was knocked down a notch.

"Are you apologizing Falco?" Fox grinned at him.

"Don't get used to it McCloud. I don't want anymore of these 'Ouch, my pride' sort of moments," Falco was humiliated.

"HaHa!" Fox chuckled, "It's alright Falco. You needed more action then we could produce for ya."

"Oh shut up Fox," Falco said and they both laughed

"It's good to have you back Falco."

"It's good to be back. You are gonna need someone who can cover your tail better then Slippy can in the Arwing. I figure that I would be just the man to do that," Falco undermined the skills of Slippy.

"If it weren't for Slippy we wouldn't have the Arwings in such good condition. If at all," Fox attempted to defend the honor of the toad.

"I don't hate him. He's a cool guy. He just needs to be more careful when his is behind the controls," Falco stated.

"You still have all your weapon's permits Falco?" The vulpine asked.

Falco replied almost insulted, "Course I do! I don't have that fancy Concealed Firearms Permit like you but I still go the other one. I don't like to carry a gun around with me."

"I like to have it so if I need it, it is there."

"Even if I wanted I could never pass that course that you need for it," Falco sneered at the vulpine.

"You could do it if you wanted. It's not that hard," Fox encouraged the avian.

"Yeah right! I don't know how you got through it! All I heard the course was composed of was commanding troopers around ans them some taking orders too. I don't have the skills for that!"

"It is a bit of that but it is a lot of common sense too. You know like don't use your Blaster as a threat. And, the Concealed Weapon is for liberation or defense purposes only," Fox said, "The basics like not showing it in public."

"Now you see, there is where I got the problem," said the avian, "I can't do that. If I have a gun I will use it. It's better if I just leave it behind. For safety of other and self."

"I knew that already bird. I need to get mine renewed anyway. So I'll go do that while the Great Fox is getting repaired and upgraded," Fox wasn't eager to go through the course again but the permit needed renewing every 3 years. The part that ticked off the vulpine mostly was that the course changed every time.

"You have to do it again?" The bird asked

"Yup and I am not looking forward to it. The Special Forces Unit changes the test every time."

"How do they do it?" Falco asked the vulpine.

"They rewrite the tes…"

"Well duhh genius! I wasn't talking about that part. I was talking about what the test was like," Falco restated the question.

"Oh, that. They put you into a virtual reality room and simulate a combat environment," Fox answered.

"Why do you still want one?"

"You know how it is Falco. If I do have the permit, I will never need it. If I don't have the permit I will need it at some point."

"What's the course called again?" Falco asked

"Well the one you need is the LTC one. But I have a few more," Fox answered.

"Well you'll do fine. I know the training you went through…" Falco got cutoff.

"It wasn't that much."

"Are you kidding!?! I know you! You're an army of one! Don't feed me any of that. You could out gun me in a fight no problem!" Falco fired the LSR2 and it overshot the target to the left by half a meter, "Hmp!"

"Come on Falco."

"Taking orders are one thing but giving them is another. That's why I got the Arwing man! That's the only area I can beat you in Fox," It was true. Fox was a seasoned pilot but the avian surpassed him in the flying area slightly. Fox was still good and the two mercenaries could keep up to each other. But in a dog fight Falco would come out on top. Not by much, but he would win.

"Uh huh. Good thing you came back cause we need you Falco."

"Yeah I know you guys do. I hope your not mad that I came back just in time to get the pay. I wouldn't want you guys to think that I was scamming you or anything."

"No Falco," Fox said, "It is a good thing that you came. Cause I wouldn't have made it out if you hadn't came along. You earned it."

"Uhh thanks McCloud."

"Thanking me again falcon?"

"If it weren't for me you wouldn't have got to meet that cute little fox."

Why wouldn't he let things be? Fox grabbed an empty clip for the P32 Machine Gun and threw it hitting the avian on the side of the head. He didn't do it hard, just enough to know that he was joking, "Hey!" Falco shouted and the two mercenaries just laughed.

Krystal awoke on Fox's soft bed. She wasn't used to sleeping in something that was so comfortable. After the last day's trapped in that crystal, she had guessed anything would be better. Last night she had considered joining the Starfox team. But the thought of it now, in the morning seemed silly to her.

She focused on the minds of everyone on the ship. They had been awake for hours. Krystal was not yet used to the schedule on which the team had run by. The day time hours seemed to be simulated by the ship automatically lighting up all the rooms, halls and corridors.

Whenever she felt the urge to rest on her ship, she would just simply go to sleep. But this race was unique, and very organized. Everything had a calendar. Time appeared to be of the essence. She had some much to learn yet.

It would still be another day until the Great Fox could reach the dry docks of Corneria. She must find something to do in the mean time. A small computer sat on the edge of the fox's night stand. It was time to learn a thing or two about these mysterious beings.

She touched and tapped button on the keyboard. And with a bit of time, the view began to lighten and the computer system started up. She smiled, pleased with her progress. All the buttons looked so foreign. It was hard to read the keys. Just when she thought she had it, the computer asked for a password.

She hated to do this, but curiosity had gotten the best of the vixen. She closed her eyes trying to find the brainwaves of Fox. Once done so, she searched through all the files in his mind. It was extremely difficult if not impossible to find something in another's mind, especially if they weren't thinking about it. This and the fact that she hadn't quite mastered the technique before her planet were destroyed. After a few minuets she came up with nothing.

Pressing the same button that she had used to turn it on a knock came to the door and she mashed the keyboard pressing every button she could in an attempt to turn it off. Her heart raced in fear that she would get caught, but the view went black, "Yes?" She tried to make her voice sound innocent.

The doors parted, and Fox stepped into the room, "Hey, you alright?"

She read through the mind of the vulpine, "Yeah, I'm fine. Thank you for asking Captain McCloud."

"Fox," he then said, "Fox is fine."

Krystal laughed. She was pleased with how the vulpine reacted. He was shy, she could sense it. The vulpine was dressed differently then ever before. Instead of the silver vest and red scarf that she had always seen him in, he was dresses in nearly full black. The silver vest was replaced with a deep black, but light in weight looking coat that had silver armor strategically placed on his shoulders, shins and forearms. Instead of the red scarf, a green patched covered his left eye. His pants and jacket had been riddled with straps, gauntlets and buckles.

Small packs hung off the straps, and a long rod was attached to the small backpack that he usually had on. It had reminded her of the Staff that she had, except more bulky and maybe a slight longer this and the fact that it didn't have a steady shape. The rod seamed to widen in some parts, slim down in side in others and random bumps and chunks sticking out of it randomly. The boots he often had on were about the only same thing she had seen him before in. He looked sly, fast and sleek and almost to the point of invisibility. She probed his mind looking for the answers for all this authentic dress, but was only able to find out that he simply referred to this uniform as "combats".

"Making yourself at home I see?" Fox asked.

"Oh… yeah," Krystal replied, "I hope you don't mind that I…"

"No, no, not at all," He could see that the vixen wore some his clothes. I guess it made sense that he was the only one on the ship that had the build that was closest to Krystal's. One of his old sweaters from his days at the Academy covered her shoulders, and another pair of his sweatpants draped over he feet. Fox was flattered.

She could automatically sense this, and grinned. Krystal was still having fun. She loved to experiment with the emotions of the vulpine. She had tried this once before on Falco too, but he didn't think twice and had simple, quick comebacks with nearly no thought. Fox however, was different. He had many emotions, and though had a very quick to react mind he often found himself short of words. It was very pleasing for Krystal.

Fox came up to his night stand and opened a drawer. Krystal's heart leaped in fear that he would some how be able to detect that she had tried to use the machine that was on the stand. But instead he reached his paw into the drawer. Krystal noticed his paw come out with a small chip. With grace the vulpine slid it into an open slot on the green lens that covered his eye, "What's that?" Krystal asked in curiosity.

He pointed a paw to the lens that covered his eye, "Uh, this is called a Heads Up Display. HUD for short. It displays tactical information while you're on the battle field or in combat."

"Combat?" Krystal asked with a tinge of worry.

"Hey, uhh look here's the thing," Fox stalled, "I'm going to be leaving for a while. There is a distress signal originating from Planet K6. So I'm being sent to see what's going down."

It had surprised her, why could she not sense this? Maybe she was concentrating too hard on his emotions, "Oh well," she thought to herself, and then said, "Ok Fox, but be careful."

He nodded, but she could feel that something was not right. His face said that everything was alright, but his mind told different. He was almost nervous, but Krystal thought it only to be pre-mission jitters, "Its ok. You don't have to worry about me. I'll go in, I'll get out and be back before evening," Fox knew this was how distress signal situations worked. But some reason he still wore his combats. It was odd to Krystal but so was everything in this new culture.

Fox jumped into the Arwing. He had just finished making the preflight checks on the fighter. A small screen covered his left eye. It was usually only used for snipers, and it would have been pointless to bring this with him to Dinosaur Planet. The only use it could have would be marking waypoints and keeping an eye on his health.

The sniper that had clung to his back just moments ago was put into is normal resting place under the seat of the Arwing. He wasn't sure why he was bringing it, but it was better to be safe then sorry. His father's blaster found its usual spot in the vulpine's holster.

Fox began to tap at the controls that sat in front of him. He pulled a lever down and the ship took flight. No forces were detected on this planet but the fact that it was almost completely covered in luscious forests made it impossible for radar waves to break through to the very surface of the planet. It made him suspicious so it still was better to be safe then sorry and take some weapons. He thrust the right control forward and the Arwing took off and flew into the darkness of space.

As Fox drew closer to the Planet, he noticed that it was speckled with small clearings. He glanced at the radar, but nothing new came up. He flicked a switch. The wings of the craft began to move and shift as the G-diffuser system took control of entering the atmosphere. The canopy began to get warm but it was nothing the environmental systems couldn't handle. The environmental systems on the Arwing were powerful. In the model he had previously owned had survived the surface of Sol.

The ground was close now as Fox stepped on the breaks to slow the descent. He tapped on the controls. Maybe some music would lighten the mood a bit. The speakers of the craft flared as it had begun right in the middle of the song: DOA. "One way to go, have no fear! No one's getting out of here, alive! This time!"

He quickly shuttered at the mashed to control board, hoping to kill the music. It shut off and Fox had a quickly had a large frown on his muzzle. A total look of discontent covered his face, and his eyes widened, "Just a coincidence," he said allowed in efforts to comfort himself. But deep down he knew he was in for a rough ride.

His mind spoke to the inside of his head, "Ok Fox, what you are going to do is go in, do what you have to do and get out. No problems no shots fired. Just in and out. Can you handle that McCloud?" Fox asked himself and nodded.

"Fox how you doing down there?" Peppy spoke into the microphone. He was the only one on the bridge besides the robot, but he had made peace with that fact years ago. His research was more important to him then ever. Being unfit to fly an Arwing, he felt that it was the only thing that he could do to help his team when they were out in the field. The least he could do was give them intelligence reports.

"It's alright. I haven't seen anything yet. But I'm still just around 3 kilometers above ground level. I'll post you when I learn… Whoa!"

"Fox? Fox, what's wrong? Come in Fox!" Peppy only heard silence, "ROB, what's going on down there?"

The robot answered truthfully and emotionless, "Fox's Arwing has disappeared off the scanners of the Great Fox."


	3. Hard Drop

Ch. 3: Hard Drop

"Aww! Come on!" Fox pulled up on the control sticks of the small fighter trying to regain control. But it was falling so fast. The altimeter on the consol was slowly but surely decreasing. On the dashboard in front of him a small diagram of the ship appeared. And the whole rear section of the cockpit was flashing a blood red. Fox looked behind him through the window of the canopy. All he could see was smoke.

Something had hit him like he had never seen before. It moved so fast, that even to most seasoned pilot couldn't move out of the way. It was but a beam of light, and it had struck the aft of his Arwing.

The altimeter continued to drop. When it had reached 1500 meters the vulpine still hadn't regained control of it. Fox decided the best thing to do, was bail. He reached under the seat of the Arwing despite the awesome G-forces he had managed to get a grasp of the sniper that lie under his seat and clip it to his side.

The Arwing still spiraled and tumbled. If he was to pull the ejection lever at the incorrect time the ejection seat would launch downward and the Arwing would come toppling down over him. Fox rolled his paw over the lever, waiting. The altimeter now read 500 meters. It was now or never. Fox pulled the lever.

The canopy shot into the air with the vulpine in his seat behind it. The altimeter on the ejected seat freaked out. It automatically activated the parachute in the rear of the chair. It wasn't very often that a pilot had bailed this close to the ground. Not to mention it was extremely unsafe. The G-forces where so strong, Fox fluttered his eyes holding onto consciences a he and the seat decelerated. It was another minuet before the chair hit the trees with the unconscious fox in it.

Peppy sat at the control of the Great Fox his eyes were wide. This was not good. He had lost Fox. He was the one that had sent him down there. He couldn't help but feel guilty. But then dismissed the thought from his mind. He spoke into the communication system, "Uhh… Falco, Slippy could I get you guys to come up to the bridge please?"

It a matter of minuets, the two mercenaries stepped into the control room, "What do you want old man? You're interrupting valuable 'me' time," Falco was still as arrogant as ever.

Slippy was more polite though, "What's the problem?"

"We've lost McCloud,"

What do you mean 'lost'?" Falco crossed his arms.

"He just disappeared of scanners and contact!" Peppy sounded a bit more worried then mad, "He was just flying there and then he dropped. There's something else too. ROB sensors indicated a large rise in energy just before…" Peppy got cut off.

"Relax. I'll have him back for supper," Falco stepped out of the control room.

"Falco! You can't go down there!" Peppy replied with a stroke of anger, "There's obviously more down there then we can handle!"

"Don't worry about it, I'll be fine."

"Fine, one last thing team, no one tells Krystal, the last thing we need is some one freaking out."

Krystal already knew, she had been reading the thoughts of McCloud as he was entering the atmosphere of the planet. She noticed a spike in his heart and then completely lost touch. She tried many times to regain the bond with his mind, but had failed. She didn't know if it was the thoughts of the others on board interfering with her sixth sense. It could also have been the ship's technology and her amazement of the new surroundings.

If it wasn't any this, which worried her the most, the fox was dead. Though she hadn't known the vulpine that long, she had already become quite attached to him. Not enough to trust him, but enough to know that see had been accepted. She would keep an eye on the situation, yes. One thing remained in her mind though, "Am I in debt to him?"

Falco hopped into the Arwing, it had been changed and modified over the years that he had been away from Starfox, but the original design still remained. It was agile and fast, but still had a tough look to it. He would find Fox and bring him back. There's nothing more to it. His hands danced across the panels of the starship. It powered out of the hanger and into the darkness of space.

Falco spoke to himself in a light, happy and sarcastic voice, "Crazy kid. It's just like him to go get lost while I'm trying rest. You just wait until I find you!" He hit a lever and the G-diffuser system on his Arwing flicker to life, automatically adjusting the wings and thrusters of the craft as if entered the atmosphere.

It was at about 3 kilometers above the ground when he received a message from the Great Fox, "Falco, the Great Fox is picking up major power signatures, I would suggest you move, Now!" When in no longer Falco pulled left on the rudder control a blinding beam of light rush past the place were he had just been, "Get out of there Falco. We can do something else to find him!" The voice came over the communication system. It sounded like he was being treated like a kid.

The bird slammed the control sticks forward heading straight for the ground. He had to find Fox, "Hey gramps, you'll never guess what I found. It looks like a whole base of bad guys," Falco drifted closer to the ground, gun and Anti-air fire erupted around him, "Whoa! Looks like these guys mean business!" He rolled the Arwing away from the base. In a clearing about ten 10 km away from the base Falco saw smoke rising from the ground, he couldn't help himself but to go investigate.

"Falco we're reading another power mass, what ever brought down Fox is about to take another shot!"

"Ok what ever! Just give me a minute ok?" Falco lowered his altitude just skimming over the trees. The light came again. It sliced through the air just above the Arwing. This made Falco laugh, "What's wrong little Foxxie can't handle a bit of action?" He approached the smoke streak in the sky, "Whoa! It's the Arwing!"

"Can you see Fox?" the radio blared.

"No sign of him."

"Falco we've got multiple targets on radar. I recommend that you bug out The AA fire is too strong. The targets alone are a very small threat but with the AA fire…"

"Yeah! I get it!" Falco sounded irritated from all the information he was getting. He hit the throttle and spun the fighter.

For the first time since they lost Fox, Falco felt like he has failed and was leaving him behind. He couldn't just leave him here. But he also didn't know if was here, or alive. But if he was here, Falco was probably attracting more attention to him then he already needed, "Alright Fox," he said to himself, "I'm going. But I'll be back for you ok? Just hold on," Falco's hands danced across the key board once more. The fighter was set to afterburners and they broke through the planets gravitational pull, leaving the bogeys that fallowed him in the dust.

"Alright," Slippy said to Falco and Peppy, "what do we do now?"

"Hmm…" the hare thought. He scratched the hairs on the chin, "We can't just leave him there. I'm going to contact the general. What ever is down there is more then we can handle. Maybe he can send us help," Peppy tapped at the controls when all of a sudden the vixen walled into the door of the bridge in Fox's clothes.

"Where is he? What's wrong?" She had look of worry on her face, "Will he be ok? When is he coming back?" She couldn't concentrate. It wasn't often that she had to ask so many questions, but with the new surroundings around her there would be a lot of that happening for a while. But now she genuinely feared for the health of the vulpine.

Peppy turned around in his chair glaring at the two mercenaries that stood before him, "Hey, I was down there looking for the guy. I don't have that kind of time," the falcon replied to this, looking offended.

"Don't look at me!" Slippy looked at Peppy, "I was on the bridge with you the whole time!"

Peppy turned back to meet the gaze of the worried vixen, "So, those roomers are true. You are physic," Krystal nodded her head and closed her eyes. General Pepper's head popped up on the display.

"Pepper here!" He said with a smile.

Peppy spoke with great honesty and clarity, "General Pepper, we've lost contact with Fox on Planet K6. He was after the distress signal there, and then he was shot down. Falco barely made it back. We have confirmation that his Arwing has crash landed. There are multiple supports there and the craft match the description of Andross's. We need back up!"

Pepper's smile quickly faded to a frown, "I'm sorry to here that. I'm sorry we can't send any forces to help you. We are still making our way out of a recent media crisis. Besides this is a time of peace. If we did send troops it would immediately kill the prosperity of the citizens of Corneria. I'm so sorry but, you guys are on your own this time."

Krystal could sense that Peppy was very angry with the answer that this Pepper fellow had just given him. But he still said, "Understood Starfox out," why had he taken no for and answer? She sure had a lot to learn about this new culture, "Well team?" Peppy mustered up the courage to speak, "What we need is a plan."

"A plan?" Krystal thought, "A plan? Fox is in danger! Why don't you just go? Go get him! Bring him back!" It surprised her how attached she had already grown to the fox. They had only known each other for but a day. Something about him was different. His mind was always calm. This made it relatively hard to find in a crowded environment. If he was unconscious, she could still have been able to find him. This worried her farther. It could possibly mean that he was dead. She had to leave, she had to try and find his brain waves again. She walked out of the bridge and headed back to the fox's room in attempts to find him once again.

The world came into focus. Fox was suspended in a tree 6 meters off the ground, still clipped to his seat. Still in daze he pressed the release button on the seat, and fell to the ground. He landed with a deep thud, he hissed, "That was dumb!"

Fox was glad there was no one around to see the decision he had made. Such a mistake could not be tolerated. If he had landed differently or had been higher this could have seriously hurt him. He remembered everything that happened. That wasn't very normal for a person that had just woken up from being unconscious. He lifted himself from the ground and expected his equipment.

The HUD lens on his eye had been cracked, but still data still scratched across the screen. Some of the tough fabric that composed his jacket was slightly ripped and torn. The LSR2 still clung to him, but it had a huge gash in the stock. Many of the rations and medical equipment was still attached to his backpack. And what had relieved him the most was that his father's Blaster was still in its usual place in the fox's holster.

But he noticed that a lot of things were missing or extremely damaged. The silver communicator on his arm was completely fried. No data scurried across it and the buttons and the screen remained dark. A bigger problem arose too. Only 2 bandoleers of the LSR2 sniper had stayed buckled to his jacket. During the quick ejection they must have been blown off. This only meant 10 rounds. That was bad.

At least they were the standard "shredder" rounds. These weren't as strong as the "tracer" rounds, but the tracer rounds left a long very obvious line through the sky from the sniper rifle's barrel to the target. If these had been tracer rounds, he would have had to been extra careful.

His body was in good shape though, besides having the wind knocked out of him when he foolishly decided to release himself from the seat. A few scratches across the face had originated from his fall through the trees. Over all his body was still in good condition.

Fox hoped that his Arwing had landed a good distance away from his body. What ever had shot him down would be soon looking for the Arwing, and looking for him. He had to get to the Arwing before they could find out that he had bailed out. Fox tapped at a few buttons on his HUD. It displayed him being a half kilometer away from his fallen fighter.

If the distress beckon on the Arwing still worked he had to activate it. He had to let the Great Fox know that he was still breathing. The vulpine stood, and turned to the direction his HUD had displayed. He loaded a round into the chamber of the LSR2 and flicked the safety setting on and counted allowed, "One," he had to move quick if he was going to beat whatever it was that shot him down to his own crash site.

After a minuet of running, the fox halted and glanced around. Something didn't feel right. Was it a trap? Fox had always been told to trust his instincts. And they were telling him something was wrong, "You can't just stay here! You have to go!" His conscience yelled at him. He knew to be weary of what his conscience tolled him. His father had said that your conscience is unfocused and that is what gets you killed.

But his instincts told him different, "Stop Fox! There's something out there. Slow down and be careful!" He decided to keep moving. What ever was out there couldn't put up that much of a fight. But then he thought back to the quick silver flash that had taken out his Arwing. Fox decided to stop. He peered down the scope of his sniper into the woods in front him.

The forest was mostly carnivorous trees. It was very bright. The sun shot through the tops and landed on the ground illuminating the white moss that grew there in small patches. A few deciduous trees speckled the forest. It gave it an odd open feeling. When the fox lay down on the ground to look through his scope he realized that you could see at least 100 meters.

He could easily see targets and if he wasn't well enough hidden they could easily see him too. Not a great environment for sniping, but it was all he had besides the short range Blaster. The sights were clean but he still moved slowly through the bush.

A bush far in front of him moved. Fox had been rewarded for his caution. He quickly fell to the ground placing the sniper on a fallen tree for support. He had never seen anything like this trooper before. Another one soon fallowed it. They were completely covered from head to toe in silver and red armor. Small round helmets covered their heads and reflective black visors coved their faces. The armor looked like a vacuum seal. Around their necks were small machine guns, Fox had seen these guns before, when he was with Bill. Many of Andross's troops carried these.

They were in between him and his Arwing. This automatically made the targets. Fox flipped the safety on his rifle off, and held his breath. He shook and lifted from the scope. It had been so long that he had taken a life this way. He hoped never to do this again, but it was either him or them now. He replaced his eye down the sights of the rifle and placed the cross hairs on the chest of the enemy. Snipers had always been taught to aim for the center of mass. On most targets this was the chest.

He pulled his eye away once more looking at the approaching soldier in the distance. Something wanted him to stop, to think. But then his training took over. Fox once again put his eye down the scope and read the distance on his HUD. He then whispered to no one, "I don't shoot men. I don't shoot people. I shoot uniforms and I shoot ranks," he breathed in, and pulled the trigger.

Krystal sat up in the fox's bed. She had just been lying down and getting up so fast gave her a head rush, "What was that?" She thought. Something had caught her attention. It had seemed almost like a remorseful thought wave. She tried to refocus her psychosis back on the thought. It was different from all the others on the ship. It had come from a long ways away.

It didn't take her long to find the mind that the thought had come from. It was now racing, like Fox's always had when she had tried to talk to him,"Is this him? Why couldn't I sense him before?" She tried harder to find him and go deeper into his mind. "Yes," she said allowed, "this is Fox. He's alive."

She got off the comfy bed and ran down the hallway to the bridge. When the door opened the three of them stopped talking and looked at her. It was like they were shutting out their thoughts so she couldn't read them. It made her feel awkward and unwanted. What ever, she didn't have time for this. She spoke with excitement, "It's Fox! I've found him!"

Falco was the first to jump off his seat with Peppy and Slippy slightly behind him. They all wanted to ask the same question but he beat them to it, "Where is he?"

"I don't know."

Falco sounded frustrated, "You don't know?"

"No," she paused, "but he is alive! I can feel it. I can sense it."

"Well what good does that…" Falco was soon cut off by Peppy with a simple paw gesture.

"Enough Falco, we know that he is alive and that's good enough for me. All we have to do is find out where he is and how to get him out."

"Well good luck! Even if we could get to him, the Great Fox is too big, and would get shot down in the Arwings. Besides we can't land it one the ground," Slippy said, "Plus the Arwings are too small to fit more then one person."

"That's right," Falco replied.

"What about Krystal's ship?" Slippy asked.

"No way frog boy! Even if we did know were he was that anti-air gun would simply shoot it down. You saw what it almost turned me into! Even I could barely doge that thing in the Arwing. You think that tank of a ship would make down there with her behind the controls?" Falco pointed at Krystal.

"If that AA gun wasn't there…" Peppy paused, "Then we could send you and Slippy down there in the Arwings to protect Krystal."

"Yeah ok. But what about that AA gun?" Slippy asked.

"That, I have not yet found and answer to. But I have found out the location of it. If we could get a hold of Fox maybe he would be able to take it out for us."

Fox's mind calmed. He rose up from the ground and headed towards the "uniforms" he had just shot. He hated to see them up close, dead, but he had to find out what was going on here, "These tropes are obviously Andross's. But why had they set themselves on such a peaceful planet?" Fox thought. Then remembering back to the Great Fox and what Peppy had told him. The foliage was too thick for radar to pierce.

It all made sense now. If they could just stay here without effecting the planets environment no one would notice and no one would come looking. But there were some things that still didn't add up. Like why there was a distress signal. Was it a trap? Or was their actually some thing else here that needed help? It wasn't likely that they enemy couldn't pick up the signals. But it was still a possibility.

The vulpine stood over the dead bodies, "Just ranks," he said to comfort himself. A symbol stood out on the shoulder pads of the troops. Yeah, it was Andross. He leaned over and picked one of the weapons up from off the soldier's chest. It was a small machine gun, just a little smaller then the P32 Machine Guns back on the Great Fox. It was very light and had an amazing rate of fire, but this was sacrificed for less accuracy and power. Fox didn't mind this though and plucked the weapon from out of the trooper's hand. He might need the fire power. He attached it securely to the outside of his backpack so no matter how fast he ran it wouldn't fall. The fox had only found one more additional clip for the gun and he had taken that right out of the duplicate weapon that the other one carried. It was foolish of them to carry such little ammo.

It was only about 150 meters to the small clearing in which Fox's Arwing had landed. Fox lay down right at the tree line, "There it is!" Fox's mind sang. But there was something else there too.

"What is it?"

"How am I supposed to know, you moron!?!" Two soldiers stood at a huge plane-like object that had pounded it's self into the ground. It had landed without a skid. This meant that it was falling almost straight vertically when it had hit the ground, "It looks like that thing that the Rail-Gun shot down earlier."

"Should we tell command?"

The ruder of the two looked at the other, "And risk getting our hides tanned? No way they'll come get the parts soon enough! What if it's just another straggler? The last time command got a phony call they freaked! You think I'm gonna take that risk you idiot?"

"Hey calm down. I'm sure that their interested in whatever information they can get," the more polite soldier stepped onto what was one the wing of the craft. It had been slightly burnt, "Besides, look at this!" He brushed a blue flap by the cockpit of the craft. An insignia began to appear. It appeared to a red quadruped with a long tail and wings.

"Outta the way!" The soldier pushed the other off the wing, "Lets see… WHOA! You know what this is? That's the Starfox symbol! This is one of their fighters. There isn't a seat in it either. The probably means that the pilot bailed out! Get command on that radio! You and I are up for a promotion! Haha!"

The other soldier jumped off the ground in agreement. And pulled the radio off his back and began to talk into it, "Command this is…" then silence came over the trooper as he fell to the grass in a heap of limbs and armor.

The other man was agitated by this. He jumped off the wing and yelled, "What are you doing? Stop joking around!" He was just about to kick his comrade in the back when his world became black. He felt a strong pressure on his chest then found himself tipping over and his feet rise from the ground. He hadn't lived long enough to hit it.

Fox burst from the tree line running at full speed to his Arwing. There would soon be more troops heading toward it. With the communicator being completely ruined the Arwing was the only way he could contact the Great Fox. He skidded to a halt at the hull. It wasn't completely destroyed. Most of the cockpit had remained intact during the fall and the consol didn't have to may problems.

A radio rest on the ground and suddenly blurted out, "2-4 this is command, did not receive last transmission. Please repeat, over," Fox nearly jumped out of his fur. It scared him so much. But they would be expecting a reply soon. If they didn't get one, they would probably know that something was wrong and send more troops. Fox couldn't risk this.

He snatched the radio from off the ground, quickly assessing it and learning how to use it. He pressed the button on the side and held the radio to his muzzle. He didn't know what to say. He wasn't sure if they used a special way of communicating. This meant if he said the wrong thing they could find out that something wasn't right. He wasn't about to proper Cornerian way that he been taught. They would surely come after him then. But he had to say something, "Command this is 2-4, nothing seen. We will be continuing our search," nothing came in reply. This scared him even more. It could possible meant that he had been, what they called in the business "made".

A crisp calm voice then came, "Roger 2-4, keep looking!" He couldn't be certain that they had bought it but what was done, was done. Fox flicked off the radio and tucked it into his pack that was now only starting to get full after his quick-drop. It might come in handy to eavesdrop on the comm. network.

It felt like eternity since he had been in the Arwing. He hoped the cargo-hold had held its self together. Fox tried to open the hatch to the cargo hold but it had been fused shut. Fox wielded his Class D Blaster and fired a trio of plasma rounds onto the latch. He ripped open the latch with an edge of the steel armor that covered his forearms so he wouldn't burn himself on the molten metal that had once been the lock. It plied open door to the cargo bay open and Fox looked in. There wasn't much left and a gaping hole had been left were the engine had been. There were a few things though. 3 more bandoleers of LSR2 ammo and 1 bandoleer of tracer rounds along with a few rations had remained, "doesn't matter, good enough," Fox said allowed, "What about the communications system though?" Fox closed the hatch and took a seat on the wing while reaching into whatever was left of the cockpit.

He pressed down on a pad, "Great Fox… this is Fox. Can anyone here me?" He waited, nothing came. He tried again.

"Great Fox this is Fox McCloud," it made the whole team sitting in the bridge jump. None of them expected to here anything from Fox.

"Fox!" Peppy turned to the control, "This is Great Fox! We can here you Fox!"

The voice came once again to the radio, "That's great guys."

Falco stepped to the controls nudging the old man out of the way, "Where have you been? I came down there looking for you and I didn't see squat! You ok?"

"Relax Falco, I'm fine. I just want to get out of here. This place is crawling with Andross's troops."

"Yeah I know. I think I saw their main base on the way down. I was big! I could see it through the tops of the trees!" Falco blurted.

Peppy pushed Falco out of the way of the radio, "Ok Fox here's what you're going to have to do…" he was cut off by the vulpine on the other end of the radio.

"What do you mean? Get me out of here!"

Peppy said with more urgency, "Look here Fox, we can't get you. Not right now anyways! So listen up!"

"Grrr, fine! What do I need to do?"

"You need to find the thing that shot you down and take it out. I have pinpointed its location. We can't come get you until you take it out."

Slippy budged in, "Fox I'm uploading the coordinates to you HUD now."

The HUD blinked then read the new data, "Are you guys kidding? This is over 40 kilometers away! What do you expect me to do?"

"Walk," Falco said.

"It's all you've got Fox," Peppy leaned back into his chair, "You have weapons right?"

Fox sat on the wing of his fallen fighter, "Yeah, yeah I got weapons," Fox was agitated, "But how will you guys know if I make it or not?"

Fox waited temporarily for the reply, it soon came, "Fox your survival is priority number one. I will know that you will make it."

"Hello! It took me all day to get just to make it here. How will you know if I am dead or just running behind?"

The radio scratched, "We will know when the power center is destroyed. You still have at least 1 D22 charge left right?"

"Yeah, I still got 1. But you guys have to keep your eyes open for the power spike. I can't have you sleeping on the job!"

"Relax, I will be here most the time. If I am not here, ROB will alert me if there are any unusual power spikes or one that resembles the D22 explosive charge," Peppy leaned back into his chair awaiting the reply.

"And have you guys any thoughts on how to get me out of here when the deed is done?" Fox asked.

"Yes," Peppy's voice came in return, "Krystal's ship has the capability to carry passengers. If you can destroy that AA gun we can send the other Arwings down there to escort her for picking you up."

"Peppy, this is going to be a long trip. I have encountered many enemy patrols already. I haven't even made it a kilometer yet!" Fox wanted to state this just to make sure that they knew how long it could take him.

"As of right now Fox, from General Pepper's command you have permission to destroy whatever gets in your way. As I said earlier your survival is key. You may use whatever means necessary to get your tail out of trouble and back on this ship," Peppy said.

"Alright," Fox smiled, he loved to be weapons free, "I guess I had better get started. But what do I do with the Arwing? Do I just leave it here? It has already been discovered but I killed the ones who had found it."

"Fox you have to activate the self destruct program. We can't let it fall into enemy hands."

"Got it, see you guys."

"Good luck Fox. See you soon!" Falco's voice came over the radio of the Arwing.

Fox got up from the wing of what had once been his Arwing, touched a few buttons on the consol. It read 10 minuets and started to decrease. He strapped his pack to his back and walked through the clearing toward the waypoint that had been put on his HUD. It was going to be one hell of a journey. At the edge of the clearing Fox stopped and emptied out every last item he had onto the ground in front of himself, just to see what he had to work with.

In the grass in front of him sat a small machine gun with one additional magazine. One LSR2 sniper rifle with 21 shredder rounds and 5 tracer rounds remained. It wasn't a lot of ammunition for a sniper but with the "one shot one kill" way of operation it would be enough, probably.

His Blaster had remained intact and working. It had unlimited ammunition but was only good to such a range. It was designed for close quarters combat on a ship. A medical and 4 ration packs still were clipped to him black jacket. No grenades but he still had a D22 sensor bomb. The small black radio that he had recovered from the soldiers he has shot earlier was also there.

The protective armor on his shoulders, forearms and knees was still there. Plus his combative boots and uniform was still in fairly good shape. It would be enough to conceal him. With all the futuristic technology, this wasn't that heavy. Fox knew that all this weight would slow him down slightly but it was still better then leaving it behind. He was not yet sure about what he was up against and what ever he could possibly carry may lead him to a huge advantage.

Not exactly what he would have chosen for a mission such as serious as your number one priority was survival. It would have to do though. The vulpine repacked everything to be more space conserving. Then he flipped the pack back over onto his shoulders with the LSR2 still wielded in his paws and the Blaster rolled back into its holster.

He watched the counter on his HUD slowly make its way to zero, covered his ears and the Arwing exploded. Fox knew that the enemy scanners would be able to sense this. There was no way anyone in a 2 kilometer radius couldn't have heard that. And they would soon come looking for what had caused it, and for him.

As far as Fox knew that there was no enemy alive had discovered his Arwing and they knew nothing of his existence. Always an advantage, especially for a sniper. He refocused his eye onto the cracked screen of his HUD, "Only 40 kilometers to go," He said swallowed, talking to no one. He spun in the direction of the target and started walking. The radio on his belt began to chatter with troops asking questions of the blast. 

Fox smiled. These boys were in for a wild ride. Fox was down but he was not out for the count. And it was time to get a little vengeance. Fox snapped the bolt shut. Leaving the gun dry without a round.


	4. Voluntold

Ch4. Voluntold

"Hey Rojas, did you hear that?" Cyn turned around talking to the other soldier. They were in the middle of a forest. It was like that all the time though.

"I didn't if you didn't."

"Shh! Listen! It sounded like a gun shot!" Cyn stopped and held his hand up. It was so silent in the woods, tree leaves rustled slightly and some birds chirped.

"I don't here a damn thing! Why does command always put us on these bogus missions? It's not like there's ever anything out here!" Rojas said, and he was right. The command center has always picked on him and Cyn. Both of them were always moved and the barracks were always changed. It was like someone had a grudge against them. Cyn and he had always been the ones singled out from the rest, to achieve pointless tasks. This was the fourth one just this week. And they never found anything either. Rojas consider this to be a way of life they were always volunteered for these or as Cyn had once called it "voluntold". Rojas continued, "I mean it's not like you and I are the only ones on this whole base! Why can't they pick on someone else for once?"

"Stop your complaining! At least we're not one of those fly boys," Cyn started to walk forward again, "And it's a good thing we don't have to sit at the controls of that lousy Rail Gun. The idiots have already shot down two of our own guys this month. Morons. Can't tell friend from foe?"

"Uh huh. I guess, and what else? We have the most useless job out there!"

"So what?" Cyn hissed at Rojas. He had gotten used to him complaining and learned to deal with it. There wasn't much else to talk to in the middle of nowhere, "Were not missing like Kiboto and Baird."

"Yeah, I guess that's true too. But what ever happened to them?" Rojas ran to catch up.

"Well they didn't check into the base at the end of their patrol and command can't get a hold of them on their radio. What does that tell you?" Cyn asked.

"Uhh… that they are bad soldiers? I don't know! What do you think?"

"Well no one would try to run away from command. It's the only place on the whole planet that we can go. Unless they decided to leave, but that can't be. HQ still has a number count on all the ships that are at the base. So that leaves two possibilities…" Cyn said.

"And?" Rojas asked impatiently.

"And since they probably didn't run away, they are probably lost and out of radio contact. Or they are dead."

Rojas froze, "Dead? What do you mean dead?"

Cyn stopped and looked back at the paralyzed trooper, "Look, all I'm saying is that Rail Gun has shot down a lot of things. HQ hasn't exactly found all the bodies of the things that had been in the aircrafts. So if there is someone out here it's our job to find them and kill them or make them a part of our army. Now get a move on will you?"

"Fine," Rojas began to step forward, "But have you ever considered that what ever it is that might be out here may have a weapon? I mean you would have to be pretty intelligent to escape all the patrols but still it's possible. Who knows how long that thing can survive out here! It's either this thing is really smart of we are really dumb."

"Hence the fact that Command gives us guns genius," Cyn gave Rojas a look of impatiens and stupidity.

"I don't about you but, I feel way safe with one. But still do you ever get the feeling that there is something watching us?"

"Rojas, we don't know if there is anything out here."

"All I'm saying is that if it is here it could be watching us."

"So?"

"Right now!"

"Ok Rojas I'm going to ignore that you ever said that. But still relax a little, for both of us?" Cyn liked Rojas most of the time, but he always came to worry in that a combat situation that he wouldn't be able to pull the trigger. Neither of them had ever shot anyone before. While Cyn knew that he was mentally prepared to fire his gun, he still wondered if Rojas would be able to.

"Alright, but you get shot. I'm running!"

"Agreed," Cyn replied. It was all he could do to make Rojas shut up.

"AGH!" Rojas yelled at nearly the top of his lungs.

"What is it now?"

Rojas stood completely still, pointing at the ground. In the grass lay a soldier. And worst of all. It was one of their men. Cyn leaned closer to the body, and brushed the dust off one of the shoulder pads. It read: Baird. He stood up and looked around, in the grass near the first body lay another. He flipped it over and read the shoulder-flash, "Baird. And this one is Kiboto," He paused looking at the shoulder-flash in remorse. "Yeah this is them. This is 2-6"

Rojas was still struck by fear, and began to feel nauseous and sick, "What happened to them?"

Cyn took another look at the armor of his fallen comrades. Death never really bothered him that much. It was extremely hard to get him to back down. One small bullet hole in each of their chests stood out, "Hmp, high caliber gun, look here the exit wound shows too. Whatever shot them went through, and through. Grrr! Get Command on the radio, will ya Rojas?" Rojas nodded and gave the Radio to Cyn. Cyn spook now with great seriousness, "Command this is 1-3, please come in."

A voice soon came back, "Roger that 1-3, we read you."

Cyn continued, "We've found 2-6, Kiboto and Baird. KIA command, looks like what ever hit them, hit them hard and silent. Their weapons and ammo had been taken before we got here."

"Acknowledged 1-3, please stand by… Your new mission objective is to hunt down what ever killed 2-6. Please proceed to grid location 45.98. Our scanners indicated a jump in radiological activity. This is also the place where 2-4 had been before we lost contact with them. Please Acknowledge."

"Roger that command moving to location 45.98. Over and out," Cyn flicked the radio off, "Well looks like we got a new mission Rojas."

"What? No, no, no! We can't just go hunting for what ever is out there. Look what it did to these guys! They didn't even know what hit them!"

Cyn pulled out his map and located 45.98 on the grid, "Hey at that's a huge round that killed them. Look on the bright side. You'll probably be dead before you hit the ground. Now let's get going it's only a bit farther. It's in a field."

"Not helping!" Rojas yelled as the two of them walked into the woods.

Fox had been listening to the whole conversation on the radio he acquired from what their command center had called "2-4". He knew that he was now being hunted. And they were staring to create a body count. He had to shot the least amount possible. The higher that the body count grew, the more interested they would become in trying to find him. From what Falco had told him there was a huge base. So he had to watch himself.

The enemy knew that he was here and before long will probably find him, "Great," Fox sat on a log and said allowed, "That's all I need," He hadn't made it that far since he had left his Arwing. He wanted to be careful. And what was wrong with that? Are far as he knew the Great Fox still knew he was alive and they knew it could take a while.

He had enough rations for a few days anyway. If he wasn't careful enough he would be killed. He had seen no patrols and the radio had been relatively quiet. Always a good sign, unless they knew he was here and they had switched channels. He had thought that, until the last transmission of the team that would now be hunting him. He had to be extremely cautious now that their HQ had found out he was here. He couldn't just "shoot first and ask questions later". He had to conserve his ammunition. The more troops that he brought down, the more that their HQ would send after him.

Judging by the radio traffic and how many troops they had sent after him. They didn't see him as a very large threat and Fox wanted to keep it this way as long as he could. Until he could get out and destroy the AA gun that had brought him out of the sky.

He glanced at the way point on his HUD. It was still a little over 36 kilometers away and it was getting dark. If he didn't pick up the pace it would take him too long to destroy the target, and they would find him. It was a large forest but there were only some many places to hide between him and his destination. At night he would move and put some distance between him and his Arwing. His HUD had a night vision setting, something he was almost sure that the enemy didn't have the advantage of.

He checked the bio-meter in the right hand corner of the HUD lens. It matched the heart beat of the vulpine. It was a little high but that was normal in this sort of situation. The bio-meter read a cool green showing him his body condition was in good shape. The HUD helped in another way too. It could pick out moving targets and heat signatures, mark them and track them. A good advantage for the vulpine, he could keep track of some targets and look for others.

Krystal sat at the edge of Fox's bed. It was getting harder to keep track of him. His waves changed almost at his own demand, nothing she had ever witnessed before. Yes, he was defiantly a unique being.

The door slid open. Falco tapped at the edge, "Knock, knock."

"Hello Mr. Lombardi," She replied gracefully

"Just came in to see how my boy is doing."

Krystal closed her eyes and refocused her mind to the vulpine, "He's fine, maybe a bit irritated, but still alive. It's so nice that you came to check up on him."

"Yeah well where would the kid be without me? He'll make it back, he might be little stubborn at times, but he'll get out," Falco crossed his arms still standing at the door.

"You speak with great confidence Falco. How are you so sure?" Krystal opened her eyes and turned to the falcon.

"I'm not. It's all we can do, is hope. Fox had lost both his parents he's still tough and has seen the worst of the worst. If anyone can do it, it's him."

Krystal tilted her head in question and almost sounded excited, "Fox has lost both his parents too?"

"Yeah, his mother when he was 13 and his dad a few years later when he was 17. I don't quite know how he made his way through it, but it seams to be working out for him. I guess he doesn't dwell on the past."

"How did they… die?" She asked.

"You ever heard of James McCloud?"

Krystal shook her head then paused, "Wait, maybe one time. Did he have something to do with Andross?"

"Yup, and of course you remember Andross. Before us was a different Team Starfox. The only member that carried over to this team is Peppy. James was Fox's dad. He had leaded a valiant attempt to kill Andross. He would have succeeded too, if it weren't for that swine Pigma! Pigma betrayed both Peppy and James. Peppy's Arwing made it back to Corneria. James wasn't as lucky though. That's when Peppy found Fox and Fox found me. Not to mention frog-boy. We were the new Starfox and we thought we had defeated Andross until just now."

"And his mother?" She asked again.

"Well, the details that I have gotten on that are somewhat sketchy. I have heard she died in a vehicle accident. But there was also something about Andross I think. Ughh, I can't quite remember. Don't worry he'll be fine," he finished and spun around with his back facing the room, "Oh Krystal one more thing, Fox has to survive cause, I think he has got a think for you," with that he walked away letting the door shut behind him.

Krystal couldn't help but blush a little. It wasn't very often that she did either. Fox was very handsome. Krystal thought about what Falco had just told her. It was true. They did have a lot of things in common. She shook her head, she couldn't think about that right now, while she was up here daydreaming in the safety of the Great Fox. The vulpine was down there fighting for his very life. It was so unjust. Life was cruel sometimes though, she of all people should have known that. After all she has lost both her parents too and her planet. Maybe she would join Starfox. The lights in Fox's room grew dark simulating the night. The mind of Fox was sound asleep, and that comforted her just enough to doze off into a good nights rest. The day had gone by fast.

"There isn't anything here Command!" Cyn spoke into the radio now angrier then ever. He had been sent on bogus missions before but there was always a destination.

The command center came over the radio, "Are you sure 1-3? You should be in the center of a large field. Our sensors indicate that our Rail Gun had shot down an Aircraft recently. Please confirm, location 45.98?"

"Roger command, grid location 45.98. All that's here is a crater and a big burnt patch of grass. This would explain the radiological activity. No sign of 2-4 though," Cyn released the button cutting off his message.

"Please standby 1-3," Command said.

"Come on!" Rojas said to Cyn, "Lets get out of here. It's getting dark. Man, why can't Andrew invest in some sort of night vision system. We are all pretty much useless in the dark."

"Stop your bellyaching!" Cyn hissed.

"Yeah, but what are we going to do now?" Rojas asked.

"What we're going to do is take down what ever killed 2-6 and 2-4. Just like command said. We aren't going to ask questions and we are going to do as we are told. I don't want to end up like Baird and Kiboto either. But I'd rather no object to HQ."

"Cyn, we don't know what we are up against! Were do we start and what do we do?" Rojas was always full of questions.

"We are going to wait for HQ to tell us what to do. Then we're going to kill what ever is out there!" Cyn was starting to get really mad at Rojas.

The radio hissed and squeaked, "As you already know your new mission is to find the castaway. But now that we are now missing 2-4 there is something out there that is smart. There last transmission was at your location. What ever had taken 2-6 has probably already killed 2-4 as well. There was one thing though… There was a strange voice that came over the radio. We didn't think much of it at the time. But it spoke put of context to our standards. We now believe that this voice was the same that had taken our other forces."

"So what are we supposed to do now command?" Cyn asked, "Where are we supposed to go?"

"If we are dealing with a smart life form, it has most likely already found out a solution to get out of here. You can't let this happen. If the Lylat system finds out of our base here, we would be in major trouble," Command paused, "The only way that would be logical to go would be towards the Rail Gun. You must find it and kill it. You have an advantage of knowing that it exists. Be warned, your target is armed and our mission experts have classified it as extremely dangerous. You must move to the position of our Rail Gun."

"Acknowledged command, we will head out first thing in the morning, over and out," Cyn clicked the radio off, "Lets make camp Rojas."

"Extremely dangerous! We can't hunt this alone! Why don't they send more troops?" Rojas was scared now.

"Cause that's that way it is. Deal with it! We'll head out in the morning. There isn't any point getting our selves lost, or worse," Cyn replied.

Rojas took out the map, "The Rail Gun…" he said, "that's 40 kilometers away."

"And that's why we will get an early start. The quickest way to the destination is a straight line. There aren't many paths that way. So it will be a challenge to track."

"Alright, if you say so, but I don't think I will be able to sleep to well tonight," Rojas said.

It got dark really fast. It would be a long night for Rojas. He looked over to see Cyn sleeping. He listened to every sound that the forest made. Every time a leaf fell or a twig snapped he held his machine gun closer to his chest. It gave him a sense of security. Anything that wanted to come after him would be gunned down by his blind firing into the night. Finally he managed to get to sleep.

Fox woke. It was still pitch black. He was frightened for a moment until he drew his Blaster to his hands and remembered where he was, "Aww I must have fallen asleep," he said to no one. But it was good he had had some rest and it was still dark. He had 3 hours to sunrise. It was enough time to move a good distance closer. As long as there were not too many enemy patrols out there. But that was more then likely not going to be the case. It made sense that as you move closer to the base that there would be more troops though.

If they were similar to Corneria's Army they would have PE runs in the morning. But knowing the laziness of Andross's troops this would be most unlikely. Plus if they already knew of his arrival they would probably be spooked if they knew he could take lives from a great distance with out giving his position away, unless he needed to use the tracer rounds.

Fox stood up and holstered his Blaster. He plucked to sniper off the tree where it had been before he went to sleep. The vulpine loaded a tracer round into the chamber. It was dark out so no one would be able to see the tracer round if he did decide to use it. Though it was stronger, it wouldn't serve much more use then being able to waste the shells at night and using the more plentiful shredder rounds during the day where he would need those most to conceal his location. Fox knew to keep a low profile and only to take the shots if he absolutely needed too.

Fox flicked the safety on, and started walking into the woods toward his target. The night vision on his HUD had kicked in. He felt safe for some reason, like nothing could see him and nothing could touch him or nothing could find him. He took a drink of one of the three canteens that each ration pack had. The vulpine wasn't thirsty but knew that he needed to keep hydrated.

He walked slightly slower then usual keeping an eye on all the things in the forest knowing not to let his guard down. Always ready to raise the rifle that was cradled in his arms, and fire. Several times he thought he had seen dark flashes in the trees but the HUD hadn't marked it as a target or anything at all. Just to be safe he investigated it. One of the Special Forces trainers had always thought him to "go see for yourself" and "machines break but eyes don't". This was very valuable advice. But there was never anything there, "My mind must be playing tricks with me," he thought, "not a good time."

He felt the cut in the stock of the rifle. Surely such a gash would have made a clean cut clean though the protective combats and surely through his hide as well. The one thing that the sniper didn't lack was night vision fire mode.

Snipers sometimes had to operate at night and if they could not identify their targets, they could risk missing or hitting the wrong person. That had never been a problem for the fox though. He and Bill had been issued as field scouts and never had been sent to assassinate any VIPs. Most snipers were sent only to observe the enemy. But with the reputation that Fox and Bill had they nearly always had permission to fire. They were the best of the best. Fox even had the ability to match most if not all of the trainer's marksmanship capabilities.

A branch snapped and Fox immediately made himself into a wider stance and looked not down the scope but the side of the gun, matching the barrel to the place where the sound had come from. A bird chirped flew away. Fox lowered the rifle. It was beginning to get light out now. And his HUD displayed that he had only made it 10 kilometers closer to the base and it still read 24 kilometers. Fox sighed. It was taking too long and he wanted out. The distance he had covered was pretty good for one night though. But he was the only one that could decide how fast he got out. Or even if he got out alive.

The vulpine's eyes widened. The distress signal! Were had it come from? And where was it now? Was it a fake? Was it a trap? By the looks of things it had been a trap. But he couldn't be certain. Oh well it doesn't matter, his life was at steak right now. Fox would look back into it when he got back to the Great Fox.

A rumbling shook trough the ground. The HUD went yellow indicating that he was in slight danger. It marked something deep into the forest. It was out of the vulpine's sight but the HUD indicated it was a large vehicle. The vehicle wasn't traveling in the way of the fox. It ran perpendicular to his route.

Fox ran through the woods toward it until he finally saw it. It was still quite a ways through the trees but Fox observed it with the scope. It was a large tracked vehicle about the same size as the Landmaster, maybe a little bigger. It had a large cannon on the front, it looked a lot like a tank except it was as wide as it was long. This gave it a weird square shape and form. The tank was supported by four infantry that walked with it. The men wore the same suits as the men that Fox had shot earlier.

Even with the added power of the tracer round in the sniper rifle, Fox wouldn't dare fire upon any of these targets. There was too much firepower over there that could be aiming at him. Then remembering he had the tracer round he pulled back the bolt and caught the shell as the spring loaded remover it popped out. He placed the tracer round back into the bandoleer with the other four and slipped a shredder round into the chamber and closed the action. He flipped the safety off just in case. The force was slowing moving down the path and away from the vulpine.

It was normal that army's had tanks. But Fox still had to ask himself, "What are they looking for? Why are they always out on Patrols?" Fox lifted his eye from the sniper rifle. There were so many questions that needed to be answered. His HUD soon read a cool green again as the armored vehicle retreated to a safe distance along with the supporting infantry.

It was getting bright outside now and the leaves of the scattered deciduas trees were wet with dew that shimmered in the morning light. It was distracting at some points when he walked through the trees and water dripped down the back of his neck and droplets fell down onto the scope of the LSR2. The water was chilly but it felt good. But the same could not be said for the rifle.

He had to stop and clean the lens before he made his way to the small road where the tank and troops had past moments before. Fox poked his head out. It looked like a cut line with rolling hills that headed toward the mountains. But it wasn't the way he was headed. He still needed to go perpendicular to this cut line. Plus he didn't want to be in the open. He jumped out of the trees and stood in the center of the road, checking both ways. The road was old and hadn't been maintained, it was rutted out and there were some big mud holes in it.

The vulpine leaped away heading to the opposite side of the road were he had just been. He once again had to slow down and keep an out for enemy patrols now that it was day again.


	5. Destrophy

Ch.5: Destrophy

"Hey! Slow down!" Rojas ran to catch up to Cyn that had been walking through the forest toward the Rail Guns position.

"Well then pick up the pace. If we don't hurry we won't be able to catch up," Cyn was walking at a fast pace, much quicker then usual. Both of them had been up for about a half hour and were continuing their mission to hunt down what command now called "Destrophy".

In the early days of Venom, there was a huge hunt to kill a man who no one had known and no one had ever heard of. This man had been slaughtering people and stealing items without anyone being able to find out until they found them, dead or gone. Destrophy was a Venom word for the mysterious killer. Unfortunately the hunt was unsuccessful and no one ever knew what had become of him, "If we are going to catch up to Destrophy we need to get the led out."

"hmp!"

"What?"

"Well it's exactly like we signed up for this."

"At least the pay is good," Cyn said

"Yeah, but still, if we do finally catch up to this Destrophy character what makes you think we will be able to kill him?" Rojas was calmer now, and slightly more mentally prepared for the journey.

"Nothing," Cyn replied.

"Nothing?" Rojas asked confirming what he had heard.

"You and I will are going to do our jobs. That's all there is to it," Cyn stepped over a log, "What do you think Rojas?"

Rojas was somewhat stunned. It wasn't very often that Cyn had asked him questions. It had always been the other way around, "If Destrophy is anything like the Venom legend he will just disappear without a trace. Leaving us to clean up the mess he made. If he is more advanced fighter and smarter then the legend himself, then he will probably kill us both," Rojas jumped the log that Cyn just made it over and he noticed that Cyn was staring at him, "What? What is it? What? Is there a bug on me!?!"

"I think that's the smartest thing that I have ever heard you say. Until that last part that is."

"What can I say? I think I am beginning to accept the way that life is going for me."

"Good," Cyn said, "the sooner that you accept it, the easier it will be."

"I guess I'm no used to see dead bodies. But seeing them makes me really want not to end up with the same fate that they did. I am still a little scared though," for the first time ever Rojas spoke with sense and clarity.

"Good," Cyn stepped on a twig and it snapped half scaring him, "fear is good."

"How's that?" asked Rojas.

"Fear is what keeps you tentative. It makes you expect things are going to go wrong. And above all it keeps you alive," Cyn answered, "You're probably correct too."

"About what?"

"If Destrophy is anything like the legend he will just disappear. Or like you said, kill us. Judging by what had hit 2-6, Destrophy has a lot of firepower with him… or her. So relax. If it was like I was saying earlier if he decides to strike, you won't feel thing," Cyn said.

"Yeah but… wait did you say girl?"

"Well it's possible right?" Cyn offered his theory to Rojas.

"Sure it is. Yeah of course!"

"But it probably isn't," Cyn said, "It could be a machine too. With all the advances it technology we could be hunting something that is way stronger, faster and smarter then both of us put together."

"But that can't be either," Rojas said, "If Destrophy were a machine, it would have probably been to the destination by now. It would have probably have already killed us by now too. And I think the radar would be able to track such an object moving through the forest like that. We probably would have found him by now too. What ever is out there is being careful. Plus remember, Destrophy was talking through the radio. So that rules out robot I think. I mean we don't even know if we are on the right track."

"We do now," Cyn leaned over and looked in the dirt, "Look at this," he brushed some leaves and out of the way, "It looks like a boot print. But it doesn't match any of the standard tracks of any of our men," he looked closer, "Its fresh too. No longer then 6 hours old."

"So that means we are going the right way. Should we tell command?" Rojas reached for the radio.

"Yeah, I think that would be best. Give it here," Cyn took the radio from Rojas, "Command this is 1-3," they both listened for a reply. But nothing came. Cyn tried again, "Command this is 1-3, can anyone hear us?" Once again nothing came.

Rojas looked over the radio, "What's wrong with this thing? The battery is good, but almost none of the circuits are operational."

"Military equipment… always works, put it down, it's fried," Cyn let the radio drop to the ground, "The moisture must have gotten to it. These things aren't really meant for extreme use."

"So we're on our own now?" Rojas asked.

"Seems that way right now, let's keep moving."

"Cool."

"Yeah, you just keep thinking that Rojas!"

"Well what else do we do?" Rojas asked, "If we do manage to catch up to Destrophy, what do you want to do?"

"I want you…" Cyn paused, "To fire like mad and kill him, it, her… what ever."

"And if I fail?" Rojas asked.

"Then we both die," Cyn answered without thought or question in his own mind. Cyn had already accepted the fact that he would probably not survive this next mission. And knowing how cowardly Rojas was, Rojas would still probably survive. He would most likely run. Leaving Cyn behind to fight Destrophy, oh well Cyn would fight Destrophy and he would most likely lose.

"What do you think it's going to be like when we fight him?" Rojas directed his question to Cyn.

"Rojas? Do you really want to know my opinion?" Cyn answered Rojas's question with another.

"Yeah, I do."

Cyn sighed, "We are going in, we will probably meet him at one point or another and we will most likely lose."

Cyn's thought started Rojas. Rojas wasn't ready to deal with death, "You really think we are going to lose?"

Cyn nodded, "Yup."

"And you're ok with this?"

"Nope, but something tells me yet that we have an advantage," I have something that Destrophy doesn't!"

"What's that?"

"I have a good felling," Cyn joked but Rojas hated it.

"That's it? That's all? All we have to go one is a boot print and your good feeling?" Rojas grew agitated with his comrade.

"Yeah. That's the way it is, deal with it!"

The artificial lights came on in the Fox's quarters, where the vixen slept. She slowly woke and rubbed the sleep from her eyes. For some reason she slept very well the past night. But still wasn't used to the schedule that the Great Fox ran by. She sat up in the bed and pulled Fox's crumpled sweater back over her stomach. Then the vixen suddenly remembered, "Fox!" She whispered.

She placed her paws on her head and searched though the mind waves off all the others and placed her thoughts. It was so hard to find his thought waves, she had been trained while she was on Cerinia but the vixen was still young when it had been destroyed she still would have had some techniques to learn to help her sharpen her sixth sense and it would have become more accurate. But it was still good enough, and it would have to do.

"How's Fox?" Krystal jumped. And turned to the door were Peppy held a tray with a small mug, "Oh sorry, I didn't mean to surprise you."

"It's quiet alright Peppy. But… I haven't found him this morning yet though. Is this bad?"

"That's ok. It's still early for you. Try some of this. I don't know if you had it on Cerinia but here we call it coffee," Peppy place the tray on the nightstand, "Be careful it might still be a little hot."

Krystal grabbed the mug from the tray and smelled the new the substance. It had a very pleasing aroma and the warmth of the mug felt nice against her paws. She slowly drew he lips to the edge of the cup and sipped some of it out. It was still very warm but it felt good to had something hot in the morning, "It might take a while to get used too. We use it to wake our selves up in the morning. It contains the element caffeine. It makes the body hyperactive, that is if you have too much of it."

Krystal sipped it once again. The first few were stale and strong. But after a few more drinks it became very pleasing, "Thank you," she said. She held the warm mug with paws wrapped around it, "I would like to learn more about this Fox McCloud. I understand that you were like a father to him," she didn't know why but she eager to learn about him. He thought differently from the others and had a very interesting history so far. She was intrigued.

Peppy laughed and pulled a chair out from under the vulpine's desk and sat down. "Yeah I guess that is true. Once his father died I helped him. I figured it was the least I could do for him. Fox came to live with me in my apartment until he was 18. He had dropped out of the Army Academy when he was 17. He went back to finish but naturally his marks weren't as good as they had used to be. But he still graduated," Peppy leaned back into the chair and continued, "He has a good spirit and a strong will. I couldn't believe that he was even strong enough to go back to the Academy. This ship is his too. Fox had inherited it from his father after he died. Of course he couldn't actually own it until he was 18, so I put my name on the contract until he was old enough. So I am his father in a way."

"What about his mother? What had happened to her?" Krystal asked.

"When Fox was but a kit of 13 years of age his mother had died in an automobile accident. The police classified the death as suspicious at the least. Mercenaries often had to keep a low profile because the enemy could harm their friends and family. Fox's mother was later found to be killed by the evil scientist now know as Andross. This is when the government, lacking a better word 'banished' him from Corneria."

"I am very sorry to hear that," the vixen said, "Is this what happens when you are convicted of murder at Corneria?"

The hare shook his head, "No, not most the time, Andross had a very sketchy history and had been often convicted of others things such as unsafe biological experiments. After the investigators classified her death as murder he was simply removed from planet Corneria. This is what had started the War. Andross swore to take revenge on James and on Fox and on the entire Lylat system. That's what happens when you let vengeance get the best of you."

"Interesting, what is it that you mercenaries do?" Krystal asked.

Peppy touched his paw tips together as if he was about to make a big decision, "A mercenary is someone who gets paid by the government for handling issues or conflicts that the Army isn't trained for. Because mercenaries don't have uniforms and often carry concealed weapons. It is much more media and civilization friendly. You have to pass a vigorous training course to get a Concealed Weapons Permit. None of the rest of us on the ship has it. Fox is the only one. His dad had it too, it is extremely hard to acquire. Of course we all still have our second class permit."

"I see," Krystal said and took another drink of coffee.

"When the public see large fleets of craft coming and going and Military uniforms on the street, it makes them worry and sometimes panic. So people like Fox, Falco, Slippy and at one time myself are paid to keep a low profile while still doing a military classified job. It gives the public an illusion of peace. But mercenaries are almost always combat ready. It is very rare you see Fox without his fathers Blaster. He usually only takes it off when he is sent on peace keeping missions like the one on Dinosaur Planet or when he goes down to the surface of Corneria. Even then he carries it with his luggage or concealed on his person somewhere. This is perfectly legal as long as he carries his Concealed Firearms Permit with him and if he only uses the weapon for considerable situations. If it weren't for Fox being a mercenary, I hate to say it but you would still be up on top of Krazoa Palace trapped in that crystal. But as you can probably tell we have not received a great deal of cash in a long time."

"So Fox is armed all the time?"

"Yes mostly. In his days at the Academy he also received piloting lessons. He got his pilots license when he 16. By 17 he was a seasoned pilot that could even keep up to his father. Plus he had Special Forces training."

"Special Forces, like with weapons?"

"Kind of, Special Forces are mentally and physically trained to perfection. Yes, Special Forces can assess situations and quickly find a solution, to even the most tight situations," Peppy said, "this is why I think he will make it out."

"Yes, I noticed that he thought very logically, except around me," Krystal giggled.

"Haha," Peppy laughed, "yes that's a bit of his father wearing into him."

"Tell me more about these Special Forces."

"Alright," Peppy said, "Fox himself was trained mainly as a sniper."

"A sniper?" Krystal looked at Peppy in question.

"Indeed, a sniper is a person who scouts out areas from a great distance with a powerful weapon called a sniper rifle. This weapon can be used to kill targets from kilometers away without the enemy being able to detect the shooter. But often snipers don't need to pull the trigger. They are there for security and observation reasons," Peppy cleared his throat, "Fox is a crack shot and he doesn't often miss what he is aiming at."

"Hmm," Krystal thought

"Is there anything else you wanted to know?" Peppy asked.

"Has he been trained in any other ways?"

"Of course," Peppy rambled, "Fox is a born leader. You must pass a course called LTC witch simply means Leadership Training Course. This is one of the courses needed to get your Concealed Weapons Permit. Of course Fox was a natural leader and he soared through it and got his permit."

"What is this course like?" Krystal was still filled with questions.

"I never went there myself but as I have been told, it was in a simulated environment. The simulation tested you leadership and commanding while you were in combat. Only 1 of every 10 soldiers is able to pass the test."

Krystal thought about the test that the military had put the vulpine through, it sounded even more difficult then the Krazoa tests, "Fox must be very intelligent," she complimented him to Peppy.

"Indeed he is. But he is especially talented behind the controls of the Arwing."

"Oh?" Krystal said it as if it were a question.

"Though he is not quite as talented as Falco, Fox thinks straighter. This makes him a little more coordinated and focused. He was the one to defeat Andross on Venom so many years ago after all."

"Yes… but he seems completely normal."

"It is truly amazing. Though he has lost his parents, trained hard and has the life of a mercenary, when he is on Corneria he seams to be a regular person. He doesn't dwell on the past," Peppy complimented Fox.

"Fox is quite the gentlemen as well," Krystal had noticed this almost right away about the vulpine. It was true too.

"I don't know how he pulled himself together," Peppy paused, "But yes he is normal and very polite. Why do you want to know all this?"

Krystal back arched so she sat up straight on Fox's bed. She had been caught off guard by the question, "Oh! No reason."

"Haha," Peppy chuckled. Krystal was embarrassed. She had not thought of the fact that the others may become suspicious of her curiosity over Fox. All she wanted to know was his background. But as she learned more about him, she just became more interested, "That all?" Peppy asked.

"Just one more thing…" Krystal paused and wondered if it was the appropriate time and place to ask the question. But Peppy seemed like he was the type with all the answers, "how would one go about to join team Starfox?"

"Uh huh, are you taking Fox up on his offer?" Peppy smiled.

The vixen nodded, "I don't want to just join the team. I want to earn my way on. I don't want to be let on just because you pity me."

"Ok, that's fine but you are still young. By the Cornerian standards you are still a minor. But I will see what I can do. Fortunately you are old enough to get your pilots license and well I can train you aboard the Great Fox for your Firearms Permit. If you want you can come down to the range sometime today and I can put you through the course. If you would like, that is. I am afraid you may not be able to get your Concealed Firearms Permit. But perhaps Fox could pull some strings. His father and he have gained a lot of respect. If you get your Firearms Permit you can challenge the test for the Concealed Firearms Permit," Peppy offered.

"That would be nice. I would like to do whatever I can to fit in with the rest of the team."

"The test won't be easy Krystal. I'm sure Fox can help you pass. I believe he is due to renew his anyway," Peppy said in order to comfort Krystal, "If you get this you may surpass even Falco!"

Krystal giggled, "It would be nice to show him up for once!"

"Falco is cocky, but he is a good pilot. Don't take anything he says to seriously," said Peppy, "So are you up to get your Firearms license? I can issue it to you right after you pass you know?"

"I would love to Peppy. Thank you. I would like to fit in at Corneria too."

"Yes I understand. I'm sure when Fox comers back he can take you shopping too," Peppy rose from the chair and pushed it back under the desk, "How about I meet you at the range at 1 o'clock?"

"Thank you Peppy. That will give me some time to find Fox," Krystal said as Peppy strolled out the door toward the bridge. Krystal closed her eyes, she learned some new things about Fox and now it would make him a little easier to find. It wasn't long before she pinpointed his thought waves. Yes, he was still alive and he was slowly but surely making it to what the Team had called the AA gun. She finished the coffee in the mug and licked her lips. She placed to mug on the tray. There was something else down on the planet, something that was hunting another. Krystal shook her head and thought nothing of it. If the planet was anything like Sauria, there were often hunts for food among the tribes.

She whispered, to herself, "James McCloud…" Krystal took the computer that sat on Fox's desk. She pressed buttons on it trying to remember how to turn it on. She had remembered a certain key on the panel. She tapped it and the screen lit up. Krystal assessed the keys and tried to learn how to use them.

When the password came up. She tried typing keys in attempts the spell the word JamesMcCloud. But they were all so foreign. She tried several times but each time she tried. It failed again. She pressed the one button that she had become familiar with to turn the machine off and on. Krystal felt like she had failed. But still she was slowly learning.

She got up from the bed and headed towards the door. It was still early to meet Peppy but she wanted to get to know her way around the ship.

"17 kilometers out!" Fox said to himself. It had surprised him how far he had moved in such an insurmountable amount of time. He hadn't seen any troops since his encounter with the armored vehicle. It was odd but it was good. Each step he took was one step closer to getting out. Fox was exhausted. He didn't get the rest needed to fuel him since he was last on Sauria. But he knew he had to get out and that it would be tough. It was mid afternoon now and Fox had decided to stop and sleep the rest of the day. It was not the smartest thing to do in the middle of the day but he analyzed it as safe since he hadn't seen enemy patrols for hours. Besides he would be able to gain way more distance in the night. He had remained active since very early this morning and had continued on the whole day and once he would fall asleep it would be dark out again.

The fox ultimately had to find a good spot some were that no one would think to look. The vulpine turned his head into the trees above and started climbing until he was slightly out of sight of the ground. He lay down across a branch with his arms supporting him ensuring he would not fall off. He soon drifted into a state of relaxation and rest.

"This is a standard C Class Blaster," Peppy plucked it from the table of the armory, "The first thing you need to know is how to handle a weapon. So we will start small. I don't know if it different on your planet but we treat our weapons with great care and respect they deserve. Always treat a weapon as if it were loaded. And most importantly never point it at anyone," Peppy handed the pistol to the vixen grip first.

She could tell that this was a very important matter. She reached out her hand and put a firm grip on the Blaster. Peppy continued, "Point the Blaster down range, as you may have already noticed there are two ridicules, the front and the rear sights. You must line these up with your target. Do you understand how these sights work?"

She lifted the Blaster grasping it in both paws and looked down the top of the weapon. She widened her stance, "Yes I think I do."

"Good," Peppy said, "now when you are ready, please pull the trigger at the targets half way down the range. It helps to take a breath and hold it there. It steadies your shot. The gun has slight recoil so be ready to feel a pressure in your palms when you pull the trigger."

Krystal nodded and did just as Peppy said. She tightened her gaze on the small target breathed in and pulled to trigger 3 times. The first 2 missed their mark but the last found its target and washed across it. Making it melt. Krystal smiled. She was very pleased with her progress.

"Well done. The more practice you get in the more accurate your grouping will become," Peppy complimented, "Take off a few more shots," Krystal lifted Blaster once again and fired 7 more shots down range. All but 3 hit their marks, "Now do you notice that there is a safety switch on the left side just above the pistol grip? Please switch it to the 'on' position," Krystal did just so and set the Blaster back down on the Armory table.

"Is that all?" She asked Peppy.

Peppy laughed, "No you must be trained with some larger weapons to receive your Firearms Permit too," he strolled over to a locker and quickly typed in the digital code, "This is a sniper rifle."

"That's what I saw Fox with!" She exclaimed, "But I thought it was something else. Like similar to my Staff."

"Yes, this is the exact same model that he uses. It is called the LSR2. It packs quite a punch and behind the trained eye such as McCloud's, it can take down targets from farther then 2 kilometers away," Peppy opened the bolt and inspected the gun, "It has a 15x scope and isn't afraid to kill on contact. This is an extremely dangerous weapon. You must handle it with the utmost care."

Peppy closed the bolt and handed the rifle to Krystal. It was much heavier then she imagined and her arm dropped down a little when he dropped it into her paws, "There are two different kinds of round for this rifle. A shredder round isn't as powerful as a tracer round but most snipers prefer to use the smaller shredders over the tracers. So we will start you off with the shredder bullets."

Peppy put a fabric strap lined with 5 shredder rounds on the table, "Now, you will notice that this weapon is not as easy to operate as the Class C Blaster. There is a small lever on the right side called a bolt. You may now pull this bolt up and back to expose the chamber. At the front of the chamber is a hole that you will load a bullet into. Please do so."

Krystal nodded and placed the shredder round into the chamber. She then assumed that the next thing to do would be to close the bolt. "Good, you may want to use the bipod to stabilize your shot. Put the butt of the gun securely into your shoulder and put your cheek to the stalk. There is a touchy distance that your eye should be away from the scope for you to get the entire effect of it," Peppy then warmed her, "Don't have your eye right up to the scope when you fire!"

Krystal moved her cheek up and down the stalk of the rifle, "I see," She said. Krystal was fascinated with how the rifle scope worked. It was so much easier to see targets at the end of the range. But it was hard to stay steady.

"The scope is set to the standards of Fox McCloud, so you may need to adjust. When you are ready to pull the trigger, do so," Peppy looked to the very end of the range, "Oh yeah and one more thing you should be aware of. This sniper used a large round so there is a fair amount of recoil, so be ready."

Krystal focused her eyes on the targets at the end of the range. Though it was not realistic distance to achieve the full ability of the sniper, it was a start. The target moved up and down with the scope until the vixen remembered to hold her breath. Even after she did so, it was still very hard to keep the ridicule steady on the target. She fired. The sniper kicked her in the shoulder quite a lot harder then she would have expected and the shredder missed the target. She leaned it down an rubbed her shoulder, it didn't hurt but she could defiantly feel that something had hit her.

"It's alright, it takes practice. Now pull the action back and the spent shell will automatically pop out of the rifle. The down side is that the rifle requires manual reloading after each shot. Now that you know how, you may load another shredder round into the gun."

"Ok," she said. Krystal pulled the lever back and jumped as the empty she casing flew through the air and bounced to the floor. Peppy laughed at her, "It must hurt after you fire more shots," she said.

"I remember that Fox had a dead arm the first time he came home to his father's house from his first day learning to fire it. Go ahead and try again," Peppy said.

Krystal tried again. She held the butt of the weapon closer to her shoulder so it wouldn't buck her as hard. Her paw fluttered over the trigger until she decided to fire. She felt the gun kick and the scope jumped as the recoil took effect. The shell missed its mark once again. She was a little disappointed.

"That's ok Krystal. The sniper rifle is one of if not the hardest to use weapons in the Corneria Arsenal. It takes a lot of practice. Especially using the LSR2 at extreme distances," Peppy said.

The vixen put another shell into the gun just like Peppy had taught her earlier. The scope to her eye, Krystal spotted another target and slowly pressed the trigger. The silencer on the sniper snipped as the round powered down range once again to miss the target. Krystal spent each last round of the shredder rounds and the shells fell to the floor. When it came to the last one she concentrated hard and fired. The target popped and Krystal smiled inside.

"Now, this is a tracer round. It packs more of a punch then the others. Snipers can often aim for the weak spots on the most powerful of vehicles and destroy them in one shot of it hits either the fuel tank or another source of power," Peppy handed her a single bullet.

Krystal took the bullet and placed it into the chamber of the sniper. It only looked slightly different from the others. It was a bit longer and instead of a round tip the tracer round had a aggressively spiked tip. She put her eye to the scope once again and focused on another target. She breathed in and fired. The rifle bucked her in the shoulder and the bipod slightly jumped off the table where it had rest but the shell had clearly missed its target and pounded a large hole into the protective shielding of the backstop of the range, "Wow," She said, "This is hard," she rubbed her arm.

Peppy nodded, "Yes it takes some getting used to, behind the eye of a well trained marksman it can be one of the most deadly weapons ever. Fox himself can hit can hit all the targets at the very end of the range without the bipod. He simply stands there and picks them off one by one. It had taken him a great deal of practice for him to get that far."

"It must have," Krystal thought allowed. She only hit one target and she had the sniper to rest on the bipod too. If Fox could hit all of them just standing, he must be good. It made her happy that she was still learning about the red vulpine.

"Let's move on. There are only 2 more weapons for you to handle. It won't be necessary for you to handle the Gatling Gun because it's just a bigger version of the P32 Machine Gun," the training for the machine gun went by quickly but when she had come to the M6D rocket launcher Krystal hesitated.

"The proper way to hold this is to swing in over your shoulder. Unfortunately we can not fire live M6D rockets inside the Great Fox. It is unsafe. So we will have to make do with these live 'dummy rounds'. They have the exact same effect as the live rockets except for the impact with the enemy vehicle. You must undo the safety clip witch will make the rocket launcher split in half. This is where you slide a rocket into the chamber. Make sure that it locks into place or it will fail to fire. Make sure also that there is no one is behind you when you fire the rocket or else the scoring could seriously injure them. Remember these dummy rockets are realistic to the shooter. This gun has an extreme amount of recoil so be careful and take a wide stance."

She slowly worked her hands over the gun and placed the rocket into its resting place making sure that it would lock into place. She looked at Peppy just make sure that she was doing it correct. He nodded. She continued and looked down the sights of the M6D rocket launcher. Krystal knew that this was a large gun and most possibly the most unsafe to use of them all, "Is it safe for me to fire?" She asked. Peppy nodded and gave her the thumbs up.

She knew it didn't matter where she would fire the rocket. But she aimed for the backstop just incase. She braced her body and pulled the trigger. The force of the weapon had almost knocked her flat on her tail. The large barrel of the gun was aimed at the ceiling before the recoil let it come back down to its horizontal point. Krystal could feel the heat radiating from the rocket launcher's barrel.

"Nice job. It takes a wide stance or a more steady position to fire the M6D accurately," Peppy said.

"Fox must be quiet a marksmen to take these targets," Krystal said.

"Yes he is calm. This is what makes him a crack shot. You can take your time to shoot but he has a quick draw and a sharp eye."

"Umhm," Krystal murmured, "Peppy? Have ever heard of something called Destrophy?"

"The name sound familiar, I could have come across it in my research. It had something to do with Venom. A hunter perhaps? Why do you ask?" Peppy answered her question with another.

"I sensed that someone or something was hunting another. In the stray waves I caught something about the word Destrophy and how it was a mysterious being that killed others without a trace," Krystal answered.

Peppy adjusted his glasses and as something in his mind clicked, "Now I remember! It was a Venom legend. Hundreds of years ago according to the legend that is, there was an almighty being that would assassinate unjust and unruly people. No one had ever found him and eventually there was a hunt to find this being and kill him. However it was unsuccessful and Destrophy had just disappeared. However Destrophy had remained undetected the whole time."

"Like a sniper?" Krystal asked and now was worried.

Peppy's eyes widened, "Like a sniper. If I am right and I have a good feeling that I am, someone knows that Fox is there. He is being hunted and if he doesn't know it he will be in some major trouble. Just like Destrophy was. Someone knows the he is down there, and they are after him!"

Krystal was now genuinely worried for the wellbeing of the vulpine, "Is there some way we can warn him? He has to find out that someone is after him."

"Is he still ok? Is he still alive?" Peppy asked Krystal.

Krystal closed her eyes and looked for the young vulpine, "Yes," she soon said, "he is still alive but he is sleeping again. Or he is unconscious, I can't tell."

"That means that they haven't found him, yet. We can't get any form of contact to Fox though. So that leaves him on his own," Peppy said, "If you know that he still breathing, all we can do is wait and hope. He has a great deal of danger resting on his shoulders, but Fox has been in and out of tighter situations, I think," Peppy then changed the subject, "Any way, this is the end of your training. You are now familiar with the standard Cornerian weapons. Please fallow me."

"Of course," Krystal fallowed the hare out of the armory.

Soon they came to a dark room and Krystal hesitated to fallow the hare into the room until her turned the lights on, "Krystal please take a seat in that chair," Peppy pointed to a chair in behind a machine. She sat down, "This will take your picture for your Permit," Peppy touched a button and the machine started to whine. Krystal posed a smile that felt awkward to her.

Peppy handed her a card with her picture stating her completion of the course and that she was certified to handle weapons. The awkward smile she posed made her look cute. At least that was what she thought, "If it is alright I would like to go back to the range and practice."

Peppy shrugged. "I don't see why not. You have completed the training. I will bring your supper if you are still shooting by then."

"Thank you Peppy," Krystal stepped out the door and went to the armory. She held the card in her hand. Krystal was very proud of what she had accomplished. She hadn't realized how fast the day had gone by. It was already almost 3. It didn't feel like she had been in the Armory for 2 hours.


	6. Weapons Free

Ch. 6: Weapons Free

The vixen plucked the Gatling Gun from the table and slipped a fresh clip into the receiver. There was something about the gun that she really liked. Maybe it was the rate of fire or maybe it was the bulky but elegant way that it looked. She had not fired it yet but it acted the exact same as the P32 except for the firepower. She has learned to fire it in short controlled bursts to keep it from "walking" upwards into the air as she held the trigger. She breathed in and unleashed a wall of bullets onto a target.

Falco walked into the Armory. He saw the vixen with a large weapon struggling to keep it steady, "Haha!" he laughed, "So gramps talked you into becoming one of us?"

"Yes I suppose that you could say that," she replied.

"You made the decision? Well if you can handle yourself on the ground you still need to learn how to fly. You better know how to fly your tank of a space ship when we go get McCloud. After he gets back maybe he can give you some training. He helped train me after all."

"What about you Falco?" You have your weapons permit don't you?" Krystal asked. She was proud of herself for earning them.

Falco was half insulted, "Of course I do! I all ready had this conversation with McCloud yesterday. But, I don't use them if I don't have to. I prefer the safety of the Arwing. But yeah I still carry the license around with me. You know what Fox told me just before he went down to be the hero?"

"What's that Mr. Lombardi?"

"That he hoped he would never have to use his guns again. Guess that didn't really work out for him!" Falco walked to the door of the range.

"Why did you come here?"

"No reason, just killing time," Falco walked out of the door and before it shut she heard him say, "Crazy kid! Always making me wait, always making me late," but Krystal sensed that he was more then just roaming around the ship. The falcon was seeking reassurance for the safety of his friend. Falco wanted nothing more to just get him back in one piece.

It was already getting late at this point. And the vixen had retreated back into Fox's room. She had to find a solution to warn Fox that he was being hunted. Back in her days at Cerinia she was in the early stages of transferring messages. It took a lot of energy, and even the eldest could only transport single words or still visions to others. Plus Krystal wasn't sure if this worked among the different race. It was a lot easier with the power of her Staff. The Staff possessed its own powers that helped her transmit messages. This is how she had done it to Fox when he had found it on Sauria. Fox didn't have the Staff this time around though. But she had to try something. She concentrated hard. She blocked out all other visions and only pictured the face of Fox McCloud.

"Let's just go a bit farther, just until the sunsets," Cyn talked to Rojas. They had been walking at steady pace all day, "Tomorrow we will be catching up to Destrophy!"

"Fine," Rojas was ok with the idea but still wasn't ecstatic about meeting Destrophy face to face, "How much farther to the Rail Gun?"

Cyn pulled the map out, "It looks just to be a little over 17 kilometers," they both walked deeper into the woods, on the track of their target.

Fox's mind raced with visions of his short term past. He remembered landing on Sauria. Saving the planet and meeting an attractive young vixen. Then crash landing on K6 and falling from the sky. And all the way back to where had had first pulled the trigger. "Fox," the vulpine's eye's shot open and he grabbed his chest. It was his name that was said inside his head. It had been like a loud whisper in his ear. His heart raced. He swore he could even feel the warm breath of the voice against his fur.

He was still in the tree that he had gone to sleep in hours before. His ears twitched and he froze still, not to let one small shake of the tree or one twig to fall down. They were voices, and soon the noise elevated to footsteps. He slowly unhooked his Blaster from the holster and cradled it in both hands. He turned his head to look below and saw two figures make their way past the bottom of the tree in which he slept. In Fox's greatest relief they continued in the same direction that he had been traveling. The vulpine immediately came to the conclusion that he was being fallowed the whole time.

After the voices went into the distance he jumped down from the tree and stared stalking the ones who had just been hunting him. It was getting dark now and Fox wanted to keep a safe distance. But as it grew darker he drew closer and closer. With his Blaster in his right hand and his sniper and acquired machine gun strapped to his back, he had a fair amount of firepower.

Until he was about 10 meters away slowly stalking his prey. He didn't want to kill these men. It was personal now. The vulpine wanted answers. He ran as fast and silently as possible. He tried to run on the balls of his feet to keep the heavy boots from slamming into the ground. If this was done correct there would be no sound emitting from the boots. Fox put the Blaster to the center back of the rear soldier.

Cyn felt the barrel dig into the protective armor. And a voice came with it, "Don't move!" It wasn't loud but it sounded very serious so he froze. Rojas turned around and was stunned. Neither of them had heard the target approach. Rojas couldn't get a look at the enemies face because he still hid behind Cyn, "Both of you drop your weapons," both soldiers had never dealt with such a situation, therefore both hesitated. Fox yelled not at the top of his lungs but enough to make him sound as a threat, "Now!" Cyn and Rojas let their guns fall to the ground.

"You must be Destrophy," Cyn said. He still didn't see the face of his attacker but who else would it be?

"Yeah that must be me," Fox said. He had no idea what he was talking about but he couldn't let the opportunity slip away from him. He had to keep a steady focus on both of them to make sure that they didn't pull a "fast one" on him, "Now you two are going to do exactly what I say. Is that clear?" Cyn and Rojas both nodded, "Ok, you are both going to stand parallel to each other and both facing me you will slowly remove your helmets," they both did as he said but Rojas acted to fast and got yelled at, "I said slowly!" Both soldiers stood in front of him and took off their helmets. Fox wasn't surprised when he saw two apes standing in front of him.

"You! You're Fox McCloud!" Rojas said in amazement.

"Yeah, what's it to you?" Fox asked with Blaster aimed between them. Rojas was about to say something but decided to remain silent. The vulpine knew that he had to keep a certain amount of fear evident to maintain their control, "Ok, that's what I thought. Now I am going to ask some questions. You will answer them to the very best of your ability. Yes?" Fox asked but assumed the answer before they could do anything, "Good," He said, "Now, I was sent here on a mission in search of a distress signal. You two know anything about that?"

Cyn nodded, "Yes, we are the remains of Andross's army. We attempted to recreate the once invisible force. We have set up a false beckon to replicate the effects of a Cornerian distress signal."

"Why?"

"We lure unsuspecting space craft in and shoot them down to harness their own technology and parts to rebuild our own alliance. Because of the planets thick foliage the radar waves make it impossible to see what going on here. Andrew…" Cyn was cut off.

"Andrew? You mean Andrew Oikonny?"

"Yes," Cyn said, "Andrew hopes to rebuild our valiant army and put the Lylat system under his control."

"Huh! A classic," Fox sneered, "My Arwing was shot down, by what?"

"Andrew invested his money in new Anti-Aircraft technology. I don't know much about the system besides the fact that it is called a Rail Gun. As far as my knowledge extends it fires super-dense rails of steel at high speeds to take down airborne enemy targets," Cyn answered with a shaky voice. He was afraid if he said the wrong thing that he would soon find himself lifeless on the ground, "It is still experimental technology."

"How's the pay boys?" Fox said and was half joking.

"Very good!" Rojas said excitedly.

"That was a rhetorical question," Fox said and his ears flattened into an aggressive position. He couldn't get to friendly with the enemy or he could risk losing their control.

"Yes, Mr. McCloud but what now?" Cyn said.

"What do you mean? What now?" Fox's ears lowered once again and he bared his teeth.

"Well as far as what you can do is that you don't have very many options. I don't see you getting out of here alive," Cyn said but the regretted it after looking at the fox's mean looking face but he still continued, "Our radio is broken and if our command center doesn't get an update from us soon they will come looking for us. And more importantly for you, command knows that you're here. But they don't know that it's a Starfox team member. If they were accidentally to find out, all of the planets forces would be here looking for you."

"Are you trying to intimidate me?" Fox asked with the Blaster now aimed right between Cyn's eyes.

"If we don't update soon, they will come," Cyn answered now with great confidence but it was then dropped back down by what the vulpine had said next.

"I see this going two ways for you guys. Its either you walk out of here alive or you go out in a body bag!" Fox said the last statement with anger. Fox knew that he was the one in charge and he wasn't going to be intimidated, "And your friend over there looks a bit more frightened then you. I think he will be the one to cooperate. And that leaves me with what I should do with you."

The Blaster was now right up to the Cyn's forehead and was almost touching it, "Don't shoot," Cyn said as he squinted his eyes, waiting for what was inevitable.

Fox pulled away his Blaster but still kept it level with the ground. Just incase. He couldn't take any chances. With left hand he reached to his small back pack and pulled out the radio he still had. He handed it to Cyn, "You are going to make a call for me. Tell your command center that you have hunted me and killed me. If I hear one word that gives me away," Fox raised the pistol to his head again, "then you are the lucky one who get's to go home in a body bag."

Cyn considered both options he had. If he did lie to command they wouldn't be to happy with him if they found him alive and the target had already escaped from the planet. But then again right here, right now, there was an angry vulpine with a Blaster aimed to him forehead, a feat that he would surely not survive. Cyn made his decision and hoped it would work, "Alright," he said the held down the button to talk, "command this is 1-3. Do you copy?"

A couple seconds later a voice came over the radio, "1-3 this is command we copy. Haven't heard from you in a while. We were beginning to suspect the worse. How is search for Destrophy going?"

"We…" Cyn paused and looked at the vulpine. Fox tightened his grip of the pistol and put his finger on the trigger, ready to fire if he needed. The Class D Blaster was aimed right as his head, "We need immediate back..." But he didn't get to finish. A bolt of supped heated plasma struck him in the head and he dropped to the ground and lay lifeless. Fox turned his Blaster to the chest of the other soldier that still stood.

Rojas stood completely frozen in fear, "Wait! Don't fire! I'll do anything you say!"

The radio flickered with a voice and Fox motioned with the end of his gun for Rojas to pick it up, "Think about it. Don't make the same mistake your friend did."

Rojas picked the radio out of the hand of his fallen comrade. He shuddered and took a deep breath in and spook coolly and calmly, "Sorry command, we had to do a minor repair job on the radio."

"Roger that 1-3. What is your status?"

"Target is down command we have brought down Destrophy! What are our new orders?" Rojas asked.

The radio soon answered, "That's great to hear 1-3! Don't collect the body. It is to stay there until farther notice. You are clear to come back to HQ for some R and R. Please acknowledge."

Rojas looked at the fox and the vulpine shook his head, "No," Fox whispered, "Tell them that you are going back to look for 2-4. I know for fact they haven't found them yet."

Rojas nodded. "Negative command, Cyn and I are heading back to point 45.98 to look for 2-4."

"If you want 2-4, over and out," with that Rojas shut the radio off.

"Good job, now what to do with you…" Fox lowered his Blaster.

Rojas still spooked spoke out, "Don't…"

"Relax, I'm not going to shoot you," Fox said while pulling off his backpack. He cut off some of the extra dangling straps from his pack, "Go to that tree," Fox pointed the Blaster at Rojas and motioned for him to cooperate. Rojas did just so and put his back to the tree. Fox grabbed each one of his hands and tied them together so he was wrapped around the tree. The vulpine stepped back, "Eventually they will find you," Fox put the pack onto himself and holstered his Blaster. He pulled out the LSR2 and ran off toward his objective. It was almost dark now and with everyone thinking he was dead and the night shielding him, he would be at the point soon. It was still 16km away but he wanted to make there. And he wanted to make it there tonight, "make sure I don't hear you," Fox yelled back at the soldier.

The next few hours were purely uneventful for the vulpine. He only stopped to rest a few times and besides that he ran at a steady jog. The darkness now made him fell so safe. Nothing except the soldier he had tied up knew he was alive. But just to be safe he wanted now to get out of this place as fast as he possibly could. If the patrols did manage to find him earlier then he had anticipated, the whole army would be after him.

If he got to what now he knew was called the Rail Gun while it was still dark, it would be a huge advantage. But if he didn't, he might have to wait another day. But he was still glad that he had the power of the LSR2. If the Rail Gun was in a valley like he suspected it would nice to be able to look down at it. He focused of his HUD and laughed. Eight kilometers to go, and he wasn't tired and had at least 6 hours of night left.

He took a drink from a canteen and ate some rations. He needed all the energy and power he could possibly get for the last rush ahead. It wasn't surprising how far he had made it in this night. He had kept a steady pace. It had taken him days to get half way and now only hours to get the rest of the journey. He got up and cradled his sniper and bolted at a fast jog toward his target watching the waypoint distance slowly decrease. The dark was so safe.

It wasn't long before he was there. The distance on his HUD still read just a little less than a half kilometer but Fox smiled he could see the base from where he was and he could see the large Rail Gun. The area was rocky and had a lot more elevation change now. He was one side of the valley and the Rail Gun was on the other.

Fox looked at it. He was level with it but below the two positions was a 25 meter tall ledge. It was traversable and it wouldn't take long to climb. The other side was grass and his edge was shale sand like ledge. It would do. It was possible and above all it would happen.

Just like Fox had suspected the only place that they could put it would be at the edge of a clearing just into the trees except on the top of a hill. It was very dark but his HUD illuminated the whole area. The green of the vision sometimes would blur and it came across the lone light that light at the small base. He loaded a tracer round into the rifle and snapped the bolt closed. The scope swept the area. 2 small rectangular buildings and 2 tanks, if it was approximately 4 infantry to an armored vehicle plus the driver and who knows how many people it took to operate the huge Rail Gun that reached just to the top of the trees making it undetectable to radar sat at the base. And there also could be supporting infantry.

"Great," Fox whispered. He counted this all up and sighed, "Over 15 people… if I'm right."

The 5 tracer rounds could take down the tanks if he shot them in the exact correct spot. He still had 21 rounds of shredder too. Fox thought to himself, "It might be enough, if I don't miss or I am wrong. But what to do? If I go straight into the base right now I will be able to set the bomb that I have but that leaves me with what to do with 20 angry bad guys. If I take them out from here they may be able to kill them all if they don't hide or I run out of ammo. But they still might be able to call for back up before I can get the charge onto the Rail Gun. And that still leaves the tanks."

The vulpine focused the sniper to almost the full cycle of the zoom function and looked over the tanks. The weak spot was usually were the main gun met the rest of the vehicle. It was where the ammo bay was located and when you hit the ammo what happens to the tank? It explodes. The place where he needed to strike was such a small spot too, but what if it didn't work? He would be out a round and the ricochet may alert someone on the base before he could reload, not to mention the tracer in the night sky. That wouldn't be a big deal though.

Fox's heart pounded like a drum, he knew he had to get rid of the tanks first. He breathed in and flicked the safety off. He placed the crosshairs on what may as well been the neck of the tank and fired. The tracer of the bullet flew through the air and hit the spot were he was aiming with the utmost accuracy. With a sigh of relief the tank turned to fire immediately on impact of the round. Fox pulled back the bolt and the spent shell popped out just in time for the chamber to receive a new one, and it was another tracer. Fox had to take out the last 1 with speed and grace before the base would become too alert and learn of him and his location. But with god-like speed the last tank soon found a tracer round piercing through the air and striking it right in the neck.

Lights at the base flickered to life as troops poured out of the building. Some went to the tanks only find out that the duo had been destroyed. Others went to the Rail Gun and more still went out of the base slightly and mounted large machine guns on the ground.

Fox flicked his night vision off. He could see the whole base now, clearly too. Fox slipped a shredder round into the LSR2, "It's go time," he whispered it so lightly that only if some one was standing right beside him could here it. He placed the sniper at the targets chest and fired it dropped he reloaded another dropped. It went like this for 10 rounds until he saw no one at all with 10 lifeless figures on the ground. The troops were no naïve. They needed surmountable degree of training to catch up to him.

It was now or never. Fox ran like the wind with the sniper at his back and the machine gun in his hands. He knew he needed the quickness and firepower. It took him 4 minuets flat at a full out run. He splashed through the small creek that was at the bottom of the short valley. Fox felt the water splash onto his combat pants, jacket and even as high as his muzzle. The coolness of the water felt good. Even up and down the slopes didn't seem to even phase the vulpine. Adrenalin fueled him now and he came close to the base he started a slow walk with the machine gun at his shoulder. He moved it all around not leaving a single direction unattended by his watchful eye and the end of his weapon.

Two men ran in front of the Rail Gun controls in attempts the get behind the cover of the AA gun. But it was futile. The vulpine fired the weapon in two controlled bursts and they both dropped in a mid run.

Fox looked at the controls to the large weapon. It was a consol in the open. The consol was small, so he assumed it could be operated by a single person. But it was outside therefore was exposed to the elements. There he would set the charge. The vulpine leaned down and set the one sensor bomb that he had just at the base of the control consol. When he heard steps behind him, with no hesitation he jumped without even looking behind him. Bullets riddled the consol that he had just been in front of. But there was a problem. His back was still to the enemy once he had come out of his roll.

Fox landed on his shoulder and with out even turning he pulled the trigger in, letting the gun fire blindly behind him. He held it with one hand as if it were no lighter then his Class D Blaster. The vulpine let the trigger off and heard the body strike the ground. He turned and was satisfied with his Spartan-like movement. It was amazing and Fox himself stood paralyzed, admiring his work.

Then it struck him that he still had a job to do. It was time to go home. It was time to destroy the thing that had destroyed his Arwing. It would feel good to avenge the death of his fallen fighter. Fox placed the charge under the control panel. He didn't want anyone to find it even after he left. It would be hard to disable. If the D22 explosive device is removed from its resting place before it is disabled it would also explode. Win, win situation unless someone had the skills to disable it which was unlikely but possible. So Fox put it in a place that was still hidden but he could observe it if necessary, he had too make sure that no one got near it.

Fox press a button on the charge that would synchronize it with his HUD. This way he would be able to tell when it is going to explode. His hands dance across the D22. It successfully armed and the numbers on his HUD ran down. It had been set to 10 minuets. That would give him enough time to get a far distance. But which way to go?

A voice came from nowhere it was coerce and scratchy but it was still legible. It still made the vulpine spin around baring his small machine gun. Fox shook his head. He should have known better, "Roger Rail Team! Back up is on the way! We understand that you have Destrophy at your location. We have multiple supports and armor teams coming your way. ETA: 5 minutes," the voice originated from a fallen soldier's radio.

"Agh! No time!" Fox said. He bolted back down the grassy hill and through the valley back to his side. Just as he came to the top of the shale he heard engines. It was still dark but the sky was beginning to lighten, but just to be safe he lay down at the top of the ledge and watched the new troop movement clear the base. Some kicked in doors and others checked the dead bodies. The 5 additional tanks took a strong defensive position.

Fox glimpsed at the decreasing numbers of his HUD. It still read 4 minuets. A lot can happen in that amount of time. It was taking to long. Fox had to make sure that the base would be destroyed.

He snapped a shredder round into the rifle. If he tried really hard he could hit the charge he had placed. And it defiantly would explode. There was no question about that. And if the troops discovered the D22, they might run. This would leave more tanks and infantry to fight him. Or one of the troops did have the skills to disable the bomb it would be a futile attempt for Fox. Leaving him out of contact of the team and to find his own way out, solo. Then what would he do? "No!" Fox told himself, "No chances, get your tail out of here!"

It was the right thing to do. He had to shoot the D22. He breathed in and held his breath in place. He tried as hard as he could to nail the target. Fox put it right in the center of the crosshairs. He referred to his HUD twice, checking the range and wind. It had to be a perfect shot. Fox just hoped that it would hit.

The rifle snipped. The shredder round pierced through the atmosphere narrowly missing the bow of a tank and struck the D22. Immediately after pulling the trigger the vulpine looked away. Fox knew it would be bright. The power of the charge light up the whole night sky. It illuminated the tree line and the valley bellow it and even the position where fox was lit up slightly. The vulpine flattened his body not letting the light expose him even though he was at an extreme distance his training told him to stay hidden.

After the initial explosion Fox put his eye back up to the scope. Night vision was not necessary. The forest the Rail Gun sat under burned. The tall AA weapon toppled over destroying 2 of the armored vehicles and damaging another. The rest of the base was in total confusion. Some soldiers were engulfed by the flames and shrapnel. The others that had kept their distance fired wildly in ever direction, hoping that their bullets would find the mark of what they didn't know was Fox McCloud. Of Destrophy to them.

There were obviously different channels that the bases ran on. Or else he would have heard the broadcast through his own radio. This could be bad. Fox would wait at his position. He had to keep an eye on these troopers. By the sound of the radio that the fallen trooper had, there was a lot more power on this planet. There had to be really. This was the gathering place for all of Andross's tropes, well Oikonny's now. Since they had not all been cleaned up 8 years ago, there would probably be a huge power on this planet, "Yuck!" Fox thought in his head, "K6."

The Great Fox's scanners couldn't have missed that. He had to give them some time. It was still very early. Falco wouldn't like to get up but he will. Fox continued to watch the Rail Gun station. It was amusing watching them run around trying to regroup. Andross's troops have always been so unorganized.

Just incase there was a problem, Fox was taught to always have a backup plan, a plan B. But his options were so very limited. If for some reason the Great Fox missed the power signature. What could he do if that was the case? He would have to find a solution to contacting the Great Fox, and the radio he had didn't have that type of range. The only other solution that came to the mind of the vulpine was to steal one of the enemy ships. He hoped it wouldn't come to this though. The LSR2 ammo would not hold out for ever. He still had the D Class Blaster but that could only get him so far.

"Nah," Fox thought to himself, "It won't come to that. I just gotta wait awhile. They will get here. And they will drag me home. Falco won't be happy about the early wake up though," Fox continued to observe the troops movement. He chuckled watching them scramble.

If that was Corneria's army they would have found secure positions a long time ago. The only thing that evened out the odds of the two military forces was the fact that Andross's military used what have to become known as "Dirty Tactics". Things such as stealth technology and sometimes he would even send massive amounts of men to fight an insignificant force. Once they had outnumbered friendly ground forces 10 to 1 and air craft at 5 to one. I was effective but not efficient. In the long run this was a very stupid thing to do.

Corneria had adopted what was now known to them as "Stock Compatibility". This was something that Andross never caught onto. It could also be called "Backwards Compatibility". Stock Compatibility was giving all the troops and aircraft similar or if not the exact same weapons. If you were on the ground combat zone this allowed troops to share ammunition without having to coordinate the caliber to their weapons, making easy and safe exchange ammo. Ships could salvage compatible parts off others. Like to take another's weapons and make them their own. Therefore making two damaged ships into one good one. If both were the same it made the repairs easy. The Cornerian army was also as organized as to do a weapons swap. This swapped all the weapons on a battle field for brand new ones.

Andross however never did this. He made his own weapons. Each one was unique from all the others. They hadn't been mass produced. Though these new weapons often surpassed the ones of Corneria, they were in disrepair. Each gun was unique and could not salvage parts off another. Not to mention that Andross had dozens of different types of ships if not 100. When they broke down, parts of others could not salvage to repair the weapon. If you broke down you were basically screwed if you were a part of Andross's Army. Most of his fighting space craft were junkers anyway.

Fox continued to watch the base. Awaiting the hissing and whining of the Arwing fighter's engines. It could be a little while but they would get here.

"Stupid Fox! Stupid Cyn! Go be the hero Cyn yeah, get yourself killed. Leave me here!" Rojas had gotten passed the stage of fear and sorrow for his friend and was now angry. I seemed selfish of Cyn to leave him hanging. He had just managed to get the straps that the mercenary had tied him with cut. It had taken a very long time but he spun hid back around the tree until the friction and jagged bark finally worked it's was through the straps.

He leaned down a picked up one of the two machine guns. Neither of them had ammo because the fox had taken both the magazines out. He reached into a compartment on Cyn's armor and pulled out a fresh clip and shoved it into his gun. Rojas kicked the body of Cyn, "Idiot!" He said allowed.

Rojas had no working radio. Command surely knew by now that Destrophy was still alive. They probably thought that he was dead or lying or that he had made a collation with Destrophy. If Andrew knew that it was a member of Starfox, or the leader of Starfox they would have sent everyone out there to find him. Rojas didn't want this. He pulled the receiver of the gun back loading the first bullet into the chamber. It was personal now, he had killed Cyn.

Rojas was mad. If he would have to die to kill Fox McCloud, so be it. It was his kill. Rojas was no longer struck by fear and all the questions had been cleared from his mind. Destrophy was going down. Rojas checked his map and headed toward the Rail Gun. He was sure that the Rail Gun had been destroyed too, "How's the fox getting out of here? He ain't got nowhere to go!" Rojas talked to himself, "He's mine!"

Krystal woke and sat up in the bed. It was still dark but something had woken her. It was a thought wave of satisfaction and fulfillment and even a bit of amusement. She focused on it. It was Fox and he was ready to come home. She smiled and jumped out the bed. Krystal pulled down the grey sweater in witch she had slept in. The vixen walked out the door heading to the room of Peppy hare. She felt comfortable talking to him. He was gentle and was more of a father figure then anything else. She tapped on the door. Soon Peppy came out with tired eyes.

Peppy adjusted his glasses, "Krystal, what can I do for you?"

"It's Fox. He is ready to come home now."

"Are you absolutely sure?" Peppy wanted to confirm this fact. There was no point in sending down shuttles if they would just get shot down.

ROB came over the comm. channel, "The Great Fox's sensors indicate a power spike of that matches the waves of a D22 Sensor Bomb Explosive Charge. It had been pinpointed to match the location of the AA gun."

Krystal gave Peppy an exited look, "Ok," Peppy said to Krystal and pressed a series of buttons by the door. The whole ship lit and soon other people's voices came over the comm. channel.

"Hey! What gives?" Falco was irritated.

Soon another came on too, "Yeah Peppy what's going on?" It was Slippy but he still sounded tired, like he had just woken up.

"Gear up team. We're going to get back our boy! You have 5 minuets to get to your Arwings," Peppy turned off the comm. channel, "You can fly that ship of your's right? Because that's the only thing we have that will bring Fox back," Krystal nodded and Peppy continued, "Good, get to the shuttle bay and bring this with you. You might need it," Peppy handed Krystal his own Class C Blaster.

Falco jumped out of his bed and slipped into his flight suit. Witch was his usual leather jacket and pants. He grabbed the Blaster on his nightstand and holstered it. It was time to get his wingman back. He didn't walk but ran to the hanger when he arrived Slippy was already there.

"How'd you manage to get here so fast?" He asked smugly.

"I got up and got dressed," Slippy yawned. He still sounded like he had just got out of bed. He rubbed his eyes.

"Ok, whatever. Where's the blue fox?" Falco asked just as she came through the door. Because she still wore Fox's clothes she didn't have a holster for the Blaster.

"I'm right here Falco," she said

"Good, here's is what is going to happen. Myself and Slippy here are going to fly our Arwings. Since they don't have the room to carry more then the pilot, you have to fly back my wingman. Don't worry me and Slip will cover you in the Arwings. Try your best not to get shot down, ok?" Falco was smug but he was to the point.

"I'm sure I'll be fine," Krystal answered even though it wasn't much of a question. But she was still a little nervous.

Peppy's voice came over the ships intercom, "Ok team lets move out. Get seated and prepared. Expect a cold reception. Falco and Slippy, keep close to Krystal. We can't have her shot down."

Krystal stepped up the ramp and into her ship. It was larger then the small nimble Arwing fighters. The ship was completely unarmed, and it lacked the G-diffuser systems that the Arwings had. This meant it took some maneuvering to get it into the atmosphere of the planet. She knew how to pilot it though. The ship was roomy too. Well, it was roomy as compared to the Arwings. There was a small room with 2 seats besides the pilots. The passenger seats had no seatbelts, only two rails to hang onto.

She pressed the ignition and the ship hummed at the engine started. The vixen pulled back on the controls and spun the ship around pointing it toward the hatch of the Great Fox. The ship jumped forward as the throttle was pushed forward. But she saw both Arwings burst out from each side and spiral. They were much faster then her ship.

"Alright! Let's do it!" Slippy said on the comm. channel.

"Don't get over confident. There are still going to be bogeys," Falco assured Slippy. "And above all we have to protect Krystal's ship. Got it?"

"I can do that," Slippy said.

The three ships began the decent into K6's atmosphere. Krystal lagged behind the other two mercenaries slightly because of the size and drag of her ship.

"Entering the planets atmosphere," Slippy tapped at the controls for the Arwing, "ETA to Fox's last known position: 5 minuets."

"Take the safeties off your Wing Blasters Slippy. Expect company," Falco adjusted the G-diffuser on his shuttle and changed his angle of attack.


	7. Reconciliation

Ch.7: Reconciliation

It was a little over seven minuets before they reached the position where Fox's Arwing had crash landed. Slippy had not calculated the time that it would take Krystal to enter and descend into the atmosphere. It was a large charred clearing with some bits and pieces of twisted and warped steal. The three ships hovered 50 meters above the ground looking at the wreckage.

"This is where the power readings came from. It was most likely the Arwing," Slippy said.

"Yeah but where's McCloud? Krystal?" Falco asked.

"I'm not sure," said Krystal.

"Hmp! Fine. Where to Peppy?" Falco asked Peppy over the radio.

"You must go to the AA gun's position. There was a large power reading. It matched to one on the D22 bomb. That probably means that Fox took it down. And if you haven't been shot down or at already that's our best bet," Peppy said calmly into the radio.

The three ships powered to the next position. The three of them arrived there in a matter of seconds even with Krystal. Peppy then blurted over the radio, "Radar is picking up multiple airborne threats. Take 'em out!"

"You got it! Krystal, hang back a little! Keep your distance and if you get in trouble call us," Falco shoved the thrusters forward, heading to the direction of the approaching targets that blipped on his radar. Slippy soon fallowed.

Fox was on the ground when he heard the hissing and whining of the Arwings engines. The radio he carried had been tinkered with so it would pick up the channel of the Arwings. The vulpine managed to pick up bits and pieces of the conversation as the team entered the atmosphere. After they entered he could hear them clearly, "Hey guys," Fox let the button go cutting of his message and the reply soon came.

"Fox!" It was Falco, "Where are you, ya crazy kid?"

"I'm not exactly sure. Does this help?" Fox put his Blaster into the air and unleashed a hell fire of super-heated plasma rounds into the air. The sun had just risen and he wasn't sure that they would be able to see the plasma rounds.

"I see you Fox!" Slippy blurted, "You have a few ground forces around you, no big deal though. They still are at a safe distance from your location. The only safe place we can pick you up is here," Slippy tapped buttons uploading the coordinates to his HUD, "sorry it's a bit of a haul but that is the only spot that isn't hot."

Fox's HUD went black. Fox saw the cracks that washed through it. Then came to life again as the new waypoint was uploaded. It read 2.34 kilometers. He never even tried to object to the marker. All he wanted was out, "Got it! Moving now!" Fox quickened his pace to a quick jog.

"You have a pretty straight line. A few hills and other terrains, keep an eye out for hostels. Maintain radio silence, if they know where you're going Fox, they will try and cut you off," Slippy gave the fox some intelligence to assist him.

"Ok. See you guys at the rally point," Fox clicked the radio off and threw it to the ground letting it smash. It wasn't the smartest thing to do but if they had technology to trace the call they would fine him right away. Might as well give them some sort of fun for the boys to track him. With that he slung the LSR2 around him and loaded it. He was still running, it took a lot of concentration to get all this done at once but he had master multitasking like this years ago.

Slippy had been right too. There were a few stray patrols but Fox managed to squeeze around them undetected. The ground had some hills and interesting terrain but it didn't take long to traverse. But when he came within the 500 meter range of the rally point there was a small team of 6 soldiers.

They wore more authentic and valiant armor compared to all the others, "Special Ops?" Fox asked himself, "No that can't be. They are out in the open, they are completely unexposed. Then again they are Andross's… hmm," Fox knew he wouldn't have time to take them all out before giving away his position. As much as he hated to do so he had to wait until they moved.

Slippy punched the throttle and the Arwing did a vertical U-turn. A laser grazed his wing but the shield held and he shot down another target. There wasn't many left. He and Falco were just mopping up the last of them, "Uh oh, additional contacts. Enemy fighters and lots of 'em!" Slippy told Falco.

"Crazy fox! Hurry up! We can't hold out here forever!" Falco sounded irritated but was actually having fun with the enemies. He loved to toy with them and have fun as they struggled to get behind him. It was a lot more fun with out anti-air weapons trying to gun you down. Falco wanted McCloud to stall as long as he could. The avian was having a grand old time, "Hmp, 10 more targets huh? Haha! Bring it on!"

"I'm glad you're having fun Falco but you wanna treat this situation a little more serious?" Slippy rolled to avoid fire.

Falco fired his missile canon and another fighter came down in a blaze of shrapnel. "The more I concentrate the worse I get! The more I try and goof off and screw around the better I am. Deal with it little man."

"Ok Falco that's enough," Krystal spoke to him as if the falcon was her own child and he was picking on another kit.

Falco hated it, "Yes mom," he said sarcastically to the vixen.

"He has a long way to go Falco, give him some time," Slippy budged in.

"Yeah, whatever!" Falco's Arwing spun through the air. He pulsed the trigger, bringing down yet another target on his radar. It spun in and pounded into the trees.

"Careful," Peppy said over the comm. channel, "You don't know where Fox is you can't just go shooting down things over him."

"Relax old man. I got this!" Falco shot down another thinking nothing of it.

Fox heard the spinning and failing of an aircraft then saw it crash into the ground where the troopers stood. It only engulfed 2 of the 6 but the others quickly ran to help their buddies.

This was his chance. The one he needed. Fox put the scope to his eye and the butt to his shoulder. He would shoot the soldier at the very back. This would lessen the chance of the rest of them finding him before they themselves fell. There was already confusion among them. They defiantly had not been trained properly.

The rifle snipped. One fell. It snipped 3 more times. Each shot killed another. They were so naive. Couldn't even notice their on troop's death. The marking on the HUD went white and disappeared. This meant that the target was dead. Nothing over there was alive. Fox knew that already. There was no surviving of you were hit by this gun.

His HUD then blinked yellow indicating he was in a slight danger. He spun around on his heels. The HUD had marked something. It was fallowing him. The motion sensor could only identify so much. Without sight of the target it could not be told as friend or foe. But what else would it be, no one else was down here so Fox thought of it in his mid as foe. It was 100 meters away. And it was moving toward him. The worst part was that the area he had relocated to was thick in the underbrush and it was hard to see anymore then 25 meters if even that in some spots.

Fox ran. He had to make a break for the rally point. He ran no more then 300 meters and thought back, "What if this thing has a powerful weapon that can take down an off guard landed ship? It could knock me right out. No I can't take that chance either. Besides for a safe extraction the area has to be clear."

The vulpine found a nice place where he could lay the sniper. He watched his HUD and the range of the target. It was slowly but surely decreasing as it moved toward him. Fox shoved a tracer round into the bolt and snapped it shut. There was nothing to do now but wait. He cleared his mind and focused purely on the new objective.

Fox could hear the lazar fire and engines flaring in the sky's above. He couldn't see them most the time. Except when they flew through the sun light casting a rough shadow on the ground from the trees. Fox put his finger on the trigger. He had considered pulling it to take down the target. But it might now work, even with the power of the tracer round it could be redirected by a flurry of sticks and bushes, throwing it off course. A tree could stop it too. Well maybe not just one tree but a few could. It depended on how many trees there were between him and his target. He decided to wait until it was closer, to confirm the kill. His mind was focused of the threat.

"This is taking too long. He should have been here by now," Krystal spoke over the comm. channel expressing her concern.

"Your right. But what can we do? We need to maintain control over the skies!" Peppy blurted.

This was her hint. She knew it. Krystal was going down and looking for him. She would find him. And bring him home, "I'm going after him!" Krystal stated and immediately shut off the radio to tune out the objections of the others. The blue vixen spun the ship around and set it on the ground. It was her turn to be hero.

Krystal snagged her Staff and the Blaster. Though she had been trained recently with the Blaster she still felt more comfortable with her Staff. But she packed the Class C Blaster just incase she would need its range or firepower.

It was light and the sun shone in the morning sky. The sky hadn't taken its full daylight form yet. It was cool in the grass and it made Krystal shiver. There was dew on the leaves and the pants she wore were already damp on the outside but dry on the inside. The wet grass in the clearing was knee high and full of dew. Where to begin? Krystal still couldn't locate the fox. This was odd. She had always been able to find him. Even with the technological powers of the Great Fox blocking her sixth sense, "Could he be dead? No?" She shook her head in disbelief, "I will find him."

The vulpine had almost fallen asleep when his HUD blipped. It startled him and he jump. Fox put away the sniper rifle. He raised his arm with the Blaster to the approaching target. It had been foolish of him to let his guard down like that. The target was now only 40 meters away and still approaching. He must have been tired because that was a short amount of time to fall asleep in. He still couldn't see it and it would be awhile until he could. The brush was so thick here. It would be better to have a quick weapon instead of the raw power of the LSR2.

But the new blip. The one that had woken him, it was a new target. And it was behind him. Not good. This is bad. He would be flattened if he flanked. He had to move to another position.

It didn't take him long to get off the ground and to a cool spot where he could stand with his back to a tree thick tree. The new target was moving closer and closer, they both were. But the new one was especially close. His HUD marked it as 10 meters. It was just on the other side of his tree. Fox flicked the safety off on his gun and peeked around the corner of the tree. There he saw the familiar blue fur of the vixen that had once been on his ship. At this moment Fox's mind immediately started to ask its self questions.

His HUD grew to a light red indicating an elevated danger. The target that had been fallowing him was now closer then ever before too. Fox could the footsteps crunch through the brush. He watched as the HUD counted its distance closer and closer to him. The enemy wouldn't see him but he would see Krystal.

Krystal stepped over a log and looked around not just with her eyes but with her sixth sense too. She was disappointed when there was nothing to show for her efforts. The vixen was just about to take another step forward when a paw covered her mouth and another arm wrapped around her waist. It pulled her back into a tree. Whatever it was it had came from behind her and now stood with its back to a tree and her right in front. She tried to scream but it was caught by the paw that now covered her mouth. Krystal was just about to bite the fingers but decided not to after a voice hissed at her, "Don't move!"

Fox had his back to a tree with Krystal in front of him. He thought she had known it was him. The HUD counted the distance of the other enemy and after it disappeared of his data warning altogether he let out his breath.

She did hear footsteps behind her but she thought nothing of them. Krystal still didn't know that the one who had taken her prisoner was indeed the one that she was seeking. It didn't matter, she thought she was a hostage and no one would come to her rescue. Krystal was going to take care of things on her own this time. She was a warrior and a healer on her home planet. She had a few tricks up her sleeve.

Krystal bit the paw that covered her mouth. The vixen felt her fangs sink into its paw. She heard the voice yip, "Ouch! Hey!" She ignored the familiarity of the voice. Krystal had been kicked into survival mode now. The vixen grabbed one of the attacker's arms and flipped him over. She was satisfied as she felt the arm pull from its socket. With lightning fast reflexes she wielded her Staff and before the attacker hit the ground she swiped him in the back of the head.

Before Fox hit the ground he was stricken in the head with something knocking him out. All he could remember was a sharp pain in his arm and something blunt striking him. He was unconscious before he landed. Fox's limp body hit the ground face muzzle first. She held the edge of the staff to the back edge of the attacker's neck ready for it to get up and try to fight. Then she lost all hope.

"Fox!" Krystal dropped her Staff right then and there. There in the brush lay the legendary mercenary Fox McCloud, "You've really done it this time Krystal," she thought to herself, "You went ahead and tried to kill the one who had saved you. Not only saved you, he had saved you twice. Smooth," Krystal felt like a moron, uncoordinated and clumsy, "But why had I not been able to sense that this was McCloud? I tried to kill the one I came to save? Really great Krystal," maybe she didn't know her own strength. She wasn't sure but there on the ground lay Fox. Krystal took a knee and leaned over the vulpine, pushing him over onto his back to get his muzzle out of the dirt.

Fox was a mess. His once white muzzle and face was scattered with dirt and scratches. His ears had small amounts of mud in them too. The lens that once covered his left eye was now in shards on the ground. The piece that remained on his face had the frame, which led around to his ear and what was left of the lens on the frame was a few jagged pieces. The black jacket was ripped and torn and the small pieces of armor had scratches and cuts. His left arm was out of its socket. She could tell that it was in slight disarray from the proportion of the other. And she had felt it dislocate from its socket when she had flipped him to the dirt.

Fox looked dead. But he was unconscious now. It didn't make sense to her why she couldn't find him. His paw began to turn red as this is the one that she had bitten. She knew she could still revive him. Fox was still far away from death. This is what the sun-like tattoo on her leg meant. On Cerinia she had been trained as a healer. With the special powers of Cerinians, the whole strength of a person's body could be put into a small area, such as a paw or even a finger tip. This is how she was able to gain the strength of take down the vulpine. There was no way he could have been prepared for that. Krystal put her paw on the red fox's chest. She concentrated. Without any force or movement, the vulpine jumped as if being resuscitated.

Krystal leaned closer to Fox's muzzle and brushed the dirty, once white fur of his nose to the back of his cheek, "Fox, I'm so sorry. I didn't know. Please, wake up."

Fox's eyes fluttered and opened and slowly. He could see almost nothing but blur and light. There was a figure about his body, it was not clear and the world was still colorless. He remembered nothing. His head hurt so much and he could feel right where whatever had hit him impacted.

He immediately wanted to shoot it. Get what ever it was off and away from him. His mind told him, "Get it away from you! Shoot it Fox! Kill it! You can do this. You will survive at all costs! Get off the ground McCloud!"

He felt around his waist for the Blaster. This is when he realized that his left arms sung out in pain as he tried to move it. He whimpered and gave a slight whine. With success he found it. The power of his Class D was all he wanted.

Fox only managed to grab it for but a second only enough time for it to be removed from the holster before it was viciously kicked from his paw. Fox's eyes still hadn't come into focus and he still wasn't sure what was above him. But then he heard the familiar voice. Instead of an enemy it felt more like an angle watching him. And it all began flowing back to him. How he had saved Krystal from being sighted and then her taking him down. He felt foolish for grabbing the pistol.

"Fox, are you alright?" She was startled that the vulpine had wanted nothing but to kill her. Maybe he didn't remember. But then she thought about what he had been through and how scared he must have been. Plus he had never expected to be dropped to the ground in a combat zone by a team mate. Plus now he thought she was an angle so he must have been confused. It seemed acceptable. It was a good thing for her sixth sense too or he may have killed her without even ever knowing it. That would have made him feel horrible. She could have of course killed him too.

Fox still couldn't see straight or perfectly clear but he noticed the radiant blue blur of Krystal as the color of the world came back, but it was still extremely blurry, "Krystal?" He said weekly and his voice crackled as if it were dry.

"Yes Fox, I am here. I'm Sorry Fox. I didn't mean to! I didn't know! I should have been more careful…" she was cut of by the dreary voice of the vulpine.

"Don't beet yourself up about it," he sounded so weak and beaten. Krystal felt so bad, "These things happen Krystal. It's alright. Don't worry about it."

"Are you ok?" She asked as the red vulpine tried to life his head from the ground, but failed and let it knock back into the dirt.

"I'll be fine," he lost his breath, "just… give me a minuet," his head stung and he fluttered his eyes, trying to regain the full usage of his vision back. The arm felt bad too, but it didn't hurt too much as long as he didn't move. But when it would finally become time to get off the ground, it would be a huge problem. He wanted to get up from the ground. Fox didn't want to feel like a helpless kit.

"Don't try to get up. Take a moment to rest Fox. I'm sorry. I dislocated your shoulder when I flipped you," Krystal looked at his left arm. Even though Fox had tried to comfort her, she knew she made a mistake.

He felt so foolish to the fact that he could have simply shot her without knowing. "I'm sorry, I…"

"It's alright. You didn't know. It was my fault. You were confused and disoriented. I'm sorry that I hurt you. It's kind of like how I felt getting out of the crystal," the vixen eased up from the ground with the staff wielded in her hand, "We should go Fox. They're coming soon. But we can stay here as long as you need."

"Yeah, we should," Fox spoke more clearly now but Krystal could still hear and sense the pain in his voice. He attempted to get up from the ground, "Aghh!" He squint his eyes. The vulpine had completely forgotten about his arm and as he tried to rise it stung.

"Don't move," She leaned back down to the other fox.

"Man! It hurts so bad," Fox reached across his stomach with his single good arm to hold the other.

"It will be fine Fox but we have to get you out of here," Krystal said, still feeling guilty. She looked over the fox's arm. It was defiantly dislocated, "I can fix it if you want. It will hurt really badly for a second but it will get better afterwards," Fox nodded after Krystal finished. It seemed logical and he wanted anything to get himself out of this pain.

"Alright you have to get off the ground first though," Krystal thought it was the best way. As she helped the vulpine off the ground she would snap it back into place without him knowing that she about to do it. It would hurt and it would hurt bad. But if he expected it he might impede her efforts. It would be best if he didn't know.

"Alright…" Fox reached his right paw to meet the one of the vixen. Before he knew it she pulled him up and crunched his shoulder. He felt it rub against the other bone and back into its socket. Fox yelped and fell back to the ground on his knees and breathed deeply and quickly. He used his right hand to keep him from falling with his face into the ground while the other one reached across his stomach. It was already starting to fell better but he didn't see this coming and was irritated. He managed to look up at Krystal who now took one knee beside him, "Thank you."

"I'm sorry Fox. It was the only way I could do it," Krystal felt sorry for him. He was so generous and yet karmic retribution hadn't exactly been good to him.

"It's alright," The vulpine now breathed lighter and slower. "It had to be done. And it's begging to feel better already," he rolled his knuckles testing out his new repaired arm. It still hurt a lot but not as bad, and it felt like it was in the correct position too, "It's dangerous here. You shouldn't have come for me," Fox scolded the vixen

"You came for me. And you didn't even know who I was. I didn't just come for that reason either. Then you saved me again. I can't let a fellow team mate down. Even after we get out of this I owe you a one," Krystal helped the vulpine to his feet.

"Yeah I guess… what? Team mate?" Fox met her eyes and she nodded, "That's great Krystal. But we have to get out here first," Fox got up from the ground and his head sung out in extreme pain. His vision began to tunnel and he wobbled and stumbled, falling back to the ground in a heap. He landed on his side, luckily his right side and not left.

"Careful!" Krystal exclaimed and tried to grab the vulpine he fell. But her grip slipped and he landed with a thump, "Fox are you alright?"

"Agh.. yeah," Fox said woozily, "Just got up a little fast, that's all," He didn't realize but one paw covered his head. This indicated to Krystal that he was in a surmountable degree of pain.

Krystal went behind him and tried to pull the vulpine off the ground with both her arms under his shoulders. Fox helped her with the effort and soon they both stood. Fox began to wobble again but Krystal looped up from under him letting almost the full weight of the red fox bare down on her. Fox tried to stand but it was so hard to keep balance. He tried to suspend his own weight instead of letting the smaller vixen hold him.

"Take it easy," Krystal told him, "Just stand her awhile and get your bearings," it took almost a full minuet before the vulpine could support himself. His breath was heavy but it slowly started to lighten. Even after his standing vision cleared Krystal stuck close beside him to ensure that he would not topple to the ground once again. Fox unwrapped his arm and held himself up. He felt a pain in his paw and he inspected it. It was a jagged cut with a few extra fang marks. Fox's head still hurt but he could focus now. He slowlt leaned down to grab the Blaster but Krystal pick it up for him, immediately noticing that is was different from the one she had.

The vixen felt bad for doing what she had done, especially after seeing the cut across his paw that she had left with her claws that just hung out of her sandals. That and the fact that as far as she knew the Blaster was from his father. The kick she had given him in the paw opened up the wound even more from the bite she had given him. She felt horrible. Fox spun the pistol in his hands and rolled it into his holster his great grace. He reached back with his left paw and snatched the rifle that hung there. She saw him bare his teeth and squint slightly as he did it. This indicated to her that his arm was defiantly still in pain. He looked at the top of his right paw. There was an open and jagged wound.

"I'm very sorry Fox. I feel terrible," Krystal looked at her sandals.

"I know you do Krystal. And that's ok. People make mistakes, and that how we learn. Like I said don't beet yourself up about it. Things happen, and above all things always happen to me," Fox joked, but it didn't make her feel better. The vulpine inspected the jagged wound on his paw. It hurt a bit but it was so minor. With the pain his head produced the pain is his right paw was tuned out.

Fox looked at the sniper and rubbed out the small amount of dirt that had collected in the action. The HUD was smashed and he put it away in his back pack. It would prove to become very useful later. The vulpine fired another shredder round into the gun and snapped the bolt shut.

Krystal laughed and Fox looked at her in question, "Oh… it's nothing," She said. It was fun that she knew a fair amount of history behind the vulpine. She would have to tell him about herself sometime.

"Then lets go," Fox cradled the rifle in his paws, "which way Krystal?" Krystal turned in the direction in which she had come, "You lead," Fox commanded but she shook her head.

"If it's ok with you, I'd like you to go first. Your better at this then me and…" Krystal paused but decided not to continue.

"Sure," Fox was flattered. He wasn't sure if it was because she felt safe behind him or it was something else. Fox didn't over think it and dismissed the question in his mind. He walked in the front and checked several times to ensure that Krystal still fallowed him. Though he knew that she felt bad, the quick change of tables he lost a bit of trust toward Krystal, and he was jumpy. Fox walked with speed but not to fast that the vixen couldn't keep up to him. His boot caught on a stump sending his feet flinging wildly to try to regain his balance. Krystal just giggled. Fox turned red, slightly humiliated and embarrassed. It was such a simple mistake.

"It's just up here. Just a little farther Fox," Krystal fallowed him but gave directions. Fox figured that she had taken her ship. It was the only way to get him and her out.

"Wait!" Fox whispered and took a knee. Searching down the scope of the LSR2 he could see Krystal's ship. It wasn't that far.

"Fox? What's wrong?" She asked. But Fox didn't answer and Krystal's stomach filled with butter flies of fear. He just continued to look down the sights of the rifle. Then he fired. The snip sound that the rifle made caused her to jump.

"Ok the deed is done. Let's go home."

When they came to the ship Fox inspected the body he had just shot. The shoulder-flash read: Rojas. Fox sighed. He took Rojas's arms and crossed them over the ape's chest once he had moved him out of the way of the ship.

"What are you doing Fox? Aren't those the guys that tried to kill you?" Krystal didn't understand.

"Always respect the dead," Fox stood over the body for a moment and then headed toward the ramp of the ship. He waved her in first.

Krystal nodded and smiled, "Yes, I hope this is enough of a seat for you to sit in. I am not really used to having passengers so all there is to hold onto is these grab bars," Fox let his backpack fall with all the supplies in it. He took a seat so that he could comfortably hold onto the bar with his right arm.

"It'll be fine. Thank you Krystal," Fox said as he saw the vixen take the spot in her pilot seat.

Krystal spoke into the radio, "Ok I have got Fox. We are ready to pull out," Krystal pulled the controls back and punched the throttle forward.

"Yeah!" It was clearly Falco, "How's my wing man?"

Krystal looked back to where Fox sat holding into the rail. He had his eyes closed but she was unsure if he was asleep or not, "He'll be fine after some rest."

"Don't you ever go do something like that again Fox! Not without me!" Falco scolded the other mercenary.

Fox spoke with his eyes still closed, "Don't worry Falco, the next time I do something like that. I will personally drag you along with me," Fox smiled.

Falco just laughed, "Next time huh?"

"I'm only 26, falcon. I am bound to do something stupid like that again," Fox waited for the reply.

"Yeah? Well you got someone else to deal with too and I'm not talking about the frog," Falco implied.

"Hey!" Slippy yelled.

Fox turned open his eyes and turned his gaze to Krystal. She wasn't looking at him but he still smiled, "I guess so," he said and turned his head and closed his eyes again.

As the ship began to angle upwards, Fox opened his eyes once again. He was slightly worried that the ship wouldn't break the gravitational pull of K6. His eyes looked around the small cab. It was full of unfamiliar symbols and designs. The controls were out of date too. But it was fairly clean.

When his eyes locked onto Krystal he focused on her tail which still had the bracelets on it. Her hair was brushed and still had on all the original accessories that had been on her when he had met her. Except that she was in his grey football sweater and dark green pants. His clothes were baggy on her but he was the only one on the ship with the closest body shape and size. They were both foxes after all. But the vulpine had a larger built chest and a more athletically shaped body. The baggy clothes brought out the cute shapes of her body. It made the cute curves in her arms and thighs show. And her fur was such a beautiful and luxurious color. It gave her a slim and playful look.

Krystal shot a look back at the fox. Fox's face turned red immediately and widened his eyes, "Uh… I was just checking out the… err… angle of attack for leaving the… plant," he could feel the heat radiate through his fur and quickly put his hand behind his head. Krystal had already recognized this motion meant that he was nervous or embarrassed. In this case it was both.

Fox thought to himself, "What happened? I wasn't that obvious. Was I? Come on you idiot, it was either really bad timing or you made yourself stick out. What's wrong with you? Battle fatigue? You probably looked like a pervert too! Pull it together McCloud! She is too young for you. Stop thinking about it!" Fox looked at his feet as was ashamed but managed to dismiss every thought in his mind leaving it completely blank except for the tinge of shame his ears drooped almost flat and he pulled out his sniper and began inspecting it to take his mind off everything altogether, "I didn't realize I was staring. That was rude I'm sorry," Fox said.

Krystal giggled out loud. She wasn't sure if it would help the vulpine or make him feel worse. She was concentrating on his thoughts after he tried to cover up too. The fact was that he did not yet know of her powers. She thought to herself too, "He's so amusing. The emotions he expresses are so uncontrolled and powerful. I hope I am not going over board with it though. Maybe I shouldn't have looked back at him. Still, it's so fun!" The she said out loud, "That's alright Fox. It's completely natural," she tried to comfort him.

Fox was still inspecting the damage done to his rifle. He opened the bolt and nearly jumped out of his fur when the spent shredder shell bounced out and onto the floor. He breathed heavy for but a second then calmed. The vulpine had completely forgotten about it. It was weird. This was a mistake he had never made before. Maybe it was battle fatigue. Krystal laughed and this just made the vulpine feel worse. She had remembered when she first learned to use the LSR2. When she had opened the bolt and the spent shell casing fell out had startled her too.

Fox removed his black gloves and rubbed the deep cut in the stock of the LSR2. He wondered if that it wasn't for the sniper he would have a fatal wound. He wanted to do anything to get his mind off what had just happened. The stock was tough and the cut was deep. It could've, but the protective combats would have at least slowed it down, but there was no way they could have stopped it altogether. Well it would have hurt. And his Arwing… "Man," he thought, "it's a good thing we got pay coming."

It wasn't long before the three ships found their resting place in the hanger. Krystal undid the strap for her seatbelt and headed down the ramp. Fox got off the passenger seat after wards, and headed down the ramp. The whole crew was standing there watching him. I guess it looked like he had just got back from the war that had he had ended years ago. He held the sniper at the center with one hand and everybody looked at him. Fox looked like he had been to hell and back.

"There's my man!" Falco yelled and came took shake his hand, "Good to see you alive."

"Good to be alive," Fox turned to meat the mechanic. "Slippy…"

"What happened? You look like you just got out fell a kilometer to the ground!"

Fox laughed, "I did," it was still easy to for him to find a light mood. Since he hadn't been to badly hurt or killed he figured it was ok.

"Good to see you back Fox," Peppy approached the vulpine and Fox leaned down slightly to hug him, Peppy returned the favor. Krystal admired the father figure that Peppy posed in the fox's life. It was very generous of him to take Fox under his arm.

"Hey Slip? You wanna bring this to the Armory?" He handed the toad the LSR2.

"Yeah sure," Slippy snatched the sniper out of beaten hands of the vulpine

"And Krystal…" Fox said as the two foxes met eyes, "welcome to the team. I hope you don't mind but I am going back to my room to clean up and then I will be out. If you want you can change into some clean clothing too."

"If you insist, but remember I still own you one."


	8. Home Again

Ch.8: Home Again

Fox headed up into the door and it wisped open. The vulpine left his pack at the lounge as he passed it. After his shower and a bite to eat Fox wanted to wear his usual silver vest and pants, except the boots so the vulpine put on a pair of sneakers. It was still very early and it would take the rest of the day to review the mission and write the reports.

He met Peppy in one of the hall ways and had him take a look at him arm. It was virtually painless but it was swollen, so the vulpine wanted to ensure that it wouldn't affect him, "It will be ok," Peppy said, "But we're still going to cool-wrap it. That way you can take it off by the time we arrive at Corneria. You should be painless by tomorrow morning," Peppy led him to the medical room and wrapped it, "Your head had suffered trauma but there is no concussion. It will be fine. It might just hurt for a while. Take these Fox," Peppy handed the vulpine two small pills, "This will help with the headache."

"Thanks Peppy, that feels better," Fox thanked the hare. And they both went their separate ways. Peppy to the bridge to do more research on what ever it was he did research these days and Fox went to the lounge.

He poured himself a cup of coffee. It felt so refreshing to be clean and dry. The shower had washed out all the scratches in his face and muzzle. They were still there but they were undetectable unless you took a close look but they were unnoticeable if you were just talking to him. Fox reached into his back pack and there he found the HUD whose view screen had been smashed when he gracefully fallen face first into the ground. But the rest was in working order.

Fox had to review his mission and status. To receive such a large amount of pay you have to fill out excessive documents and forms. He still had to do a review on his mission to Sauria not to mention K6. It surprised him when the holo-panel light up and General Pepper's face appeared, "General Pepper, sir!" Fox said.

"Haha! I heard about your latest mission from Peppy. Great job!" Pepper sounded as happy as usual.

"Yeah, wouldn't have made it out if it weren't for my team either," Fox was proud of them for dragging his sorry self out.

"So from what I hear planet K6 is home to Andross's troops?"

"That's right General, for a dead guy Andross sure does hang around for a long time. That's not all though, I learned that they are sending a false distress signal to lure in space craft, shoot them down and salvage the technology and parts for themselves…" Fox was cut off.

"Fox do you know how huge this is? To find a base of such power and magnitude? We are defiantly not going to take this lying down," General Pepper said with great confidence.

"And there was something of Andrew Oikonny too. He was their new ruler," Fox was once again cut off.

"Because of our new knowledge of this base, I have approved a major bonus in your pay. Thank you Fox!"

"That's very generous of you General, thank you!" Fox was now extremely happy but he tried not to show it in his face, "we will be arriving at Corneria tomorrow morning sometime. You might have to reach the bridge for farther details."

"Keep up the good wok Fox. Oh, and this new member Krystal. I am not sure that she can be a part of your team. To Cornerian standards she is still a minor. The press and ethics comity would be none too impressed to see a minor die in combat," Fox could here a tinge of sorrow in the Generals voice.

"With all due respect sir, I was stationed as a sniper at the age of 17."

"That's different Fox. You have parental permission to fight and besides Krystal is only 16 going on 17 soon. I don't know if there is much I can do," General Pepper said.

"Then I will be her guardian," Fox offered.

"I am afraid it's not that easy Fox. There is very little I can do."

"I understand sir. Fox out," he clicked the comm. channel off in frustration. This sucks, she had nowhere else to go and she was alone in the world. But she was young even for him at 26. No he couldn't think that way he shut down those thoughts from his mind.

Fox was working all day. He despised how much paper work was needed to do not to mention mission review. With the new one he had just gotten home from it proved even more work. At it was not until 6pm when he finished.

Fox popped a chip out of what was left of his HUD and slipped it into a slot on the TV. It showed him talking to Krystal and he skipped it forward just to where he had been shot down. The door behind him slid open and there stood the blue vixen. The image on the TV exploded and spiraled. Fox shut it off, "Krystal,"

"What was that?" She stepped into the room and asked him.

"Oh that… it was just uh… me," Fox flicked the TV back on just to meet the part where he ejected from the cockpit. Krystal sat down in a seat across from him, "Good thing you're here. I wanted to talk to you about something," he looked at the screen and saw his body falling, "I don't know if you can be a member of Starfox."

Krystal looked at him in question, "Why not?"

"I was talking to the general this morning and public affairs won't allow you to fight. They can't take the risk of a minor getting killed in action."

"I understand… your planet had a strong foundation of principles and ethics," Krystal looked at her feet and was disappointed by the new knowledge.

"I'm sorry but…" Fox started to say but the comm. channel flickered on and Peppy's face came to the holo-panel.

"Fox! Fox!" Peppy sounded happy and excited.

The vulpine rubbed his paw down the center of his face over his muzzle and then rest his head on it, looking impatient and board, "What can I do for you Peppy?"

"I was in researching planet Cerinia, and I stumbled across something that I think you should know. The planet Cerinia rotated its star slower then Corneria does now. This means that the average year on Cerinia is longer then the ones on Corneria. I have done some calculations this means that Krystal is not in fact 16 going on 17 but she is about to turn 19 shortly," Peppy reported.

"So this means…"

"Fox she is not a minor to Cornerian standards. Krystal is a certified adult. She even has her Firearms Permit," Peppy said.

Fox turned to look at Krystal and smiled, "Firearms Permit huh? Good job Krystal," Fox congratulated her, "Have you alerted General Pepper?" Fox asked anxiously to Peppy.

"I just got off the network with him. He approves, there is nothing the media or ethical affairs can do!" Peppy was happy that he able to help.

"Thanks Pep! Fox out!" Fox shut of the network. He looked at Krystal and smiled. "You're in," Fox pulled out a black box from his pocket and flipped it open. Inside was a pin. It was a duplicate compared to the pin that Fox usually wore on his lapel or over his heart.

Fox allowed her to take the pin out of the box, "It's so beautiful," she said looking at. She held it with both hands and angled the insignia back and forth, watching the light reflect off of it into different directions, "But… Fox?" she asked. Fox looked at her like he was worried, "I don't want to be just let onto the team. I want to prove myself to the others and… to you."

Fox was flattered, "Well…" he stuttered, "We can start by getting you your pilot's license. And get you some new clothing if you would like. It only seems fair,"

"I don't want just that Fox, I want to be everything that you are. I was talking to Peppy about something called a Concealed Firearms Permit. That's the way I want to earn myself to the team. Do you know anything about that?"

The red vulpine stood and pulled a card from the wallet that was in his vest, "Yeah I got one," he handed it to her and let her examine it. Then Fox gave her a copy of his pilots license, "But you have to pass an extremely hard course to get it. Even I barely made it through."

"I want to try. I want to prove myself. I want to do it," Krystal handed the two cards back to the vulpine, "do you think I can pass?"

Fox hesitated for a second. Then came a smooth clear answer, "This is a hard test Krystal. But if you can pass the Krazoa tests? Yes, I do believe that you can pass."

"Thank you Fox. For everything." Krystal said.

"Yeah," Fox thought to himself, "She's old enough to take care of herself. She dragged me out. If it wasn't for her I wouldn't be here. If it wasn't for me she wouldn't have been able to save me. I could be down there still working and trying to find solutions and injured or maybe dead. Yeah they would have tracked me down. But 19 going on 20? She would need some training and pilot lessons. Something I can do. Plus she is only 6 years younger then me, not 8. I can deal with that."

"Why's this Fox? Can't date minors?" Krystal smiled at him.

"Err… no! What!?! It's just you are… obviously uhh old enough to take care of yourself so... you are defiantly fit to become a member of Starfox," Fox blurted out the answer as fast as he could. But how had she known? Fox looked at her with narrowed eyes and suspicious expression. 

"It's alright Fox. You're Fun…" Krystal saw the fox blush and he tried to shake it off. She could tell that he was once again ashamed and felt like a moron. It was still fun for her. Fox had a sweet boyish charm to him. His emotions were fun to toy with. But she hoped she wasn't being rude. She decided to stop reading his mind for a while.

"So you can read minds?" Fox asked nervously. Krystal just smiled, nodded and laughed.

Fox tried to change the subject, "From what I understand, Peppy has been training you?" Fox asked Krystal and she nodded. Fox continued, "We have to go to the Military Complex and test you to get the rest of your licensees. I'll take you. If that's ok with you?" Fox asked and Krystal nodded and giggled. Krystal heard a deep thump and a moan. She turned her head to the TV where Fox had just unbuckled himself from the seat and fell to the ground.

"Huh, graceful," Fox said making fun of himself. It seamed easy to look back and laugh at his mistakes now.

Krystal laughed and then watched the TV. Because there was only such an angle of view that the HUD produced she mostly just saw Fox's paws and the rifle he carried. She straightened her face, "Is this, what it was like?" She asked. Fox didn't even turn to her and remained silent but still nodded. He skipped the footage forward. He had the target right into the reticule of the sniper, pulling away several times trying to decide if it was the right thing to do to pull the trigger.

When he finally did it made Krystal's heart leap. To reload the LSR2 his hands moved with such grace. It was true that he had been doing it for years but Krystal hadn't been able to hit barely anything and she dropped the rounds several times when she had tried to reload it.

"Here! Right here," Fox paused the movie and narrowed his eyes and focused on the screen, "It was you," Fox looked at Krystal. She was completely confused and cocked her head as to ask a question, "When I was sleeping, something came to me. It was a voice like it was whispered right in my ear. I could even feel your warm breath. Right after that there were two men that past below me. Did you warn me?"

Krystal thought for a second still not knowing what he was talking about. Then she remembered, "Oh, on planet Cerinia my people practiced sending messages long distances. I wasn't sure if it would work, but it looked like it paid off."

"That's twice you have saved me, that makes us even," Fox said to Krystal and she raised an eyebrow.

"No Fox. I still am in your debt,"

The two foxes sat and watched the combat footage. When it finally came to where Fox had interrogated the two men, she saw him differently. Like he was reckless, and rouge. But it was part of his training.

"You might not what to see this next part," Fox knew it was at about the part where fox had to shoot the soldier in the forehead. She turned her head for a moment and looked at her paws while she heard the Blaster fire and a body fall. She turned back toward the screen and saw that he was now pointing the Blaster at the other soldier. Once again Krystal quickly spun her head expecting another shot but nothing came and she only heard them talking. It odd to see the gentle vulpine that now sat beside her yelling, and fighting just to stay alive, "I'm sorry you had to see that," Fox said compassionately. He knew there was nothing worth watching until the part where he had to fire upon the base.

It didn't take long before he had neutralized all the targets in his scope. It took him sometime to run to the base. It was a green screen indicating night vision was on. Fox set the charge and jumped to avoid the flurry of bullets.

Soon it came time to where he had shot the D22 explosive charge. Krystal admired his marksmanship for this. It was such a small target even in the powerful scope of the LSR2. She couldn't even hit the targets at the end of the small range of the Great Fox. The targets in the range were larger too.

Fox hit a button on the remote skipping it forward it landed at the part just after he saved Krystal. And then flipped head over heels landing face first into the ground, the screen went black as the HUD smashed. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Krystal look to the floor and shudder at the vulpine hit the ground, "I am very sorry."

"Krystal, it is ok. Things happen. If it weren't for you I wouldn't be here if it weren't for you. Your admitting to your mistakes next time you will know to be more careful."

"I wouldn't be here if it weren't for you," Krystal returned the compliment.

"When I was 13 my…" Fox was cut of by Krystal.

"Mother died,"

"That's right and when I was 17…"

"Your father died," Krystal finished his thoughts, "Peppy and the rest of the crew have told me a lot about you. You think very logically. I know about your combat history and that's what makes me want to join the team. I want to fit in somewhere for once. I want to be just like you, even if I have to work for it."

"You'll have to tell me about your history sometime. If it doesn't hurt too much," fox asked even though it was not a question.

Krystal thought it over. Though it had happened years ago it still hurt to talk about it. But Fox had also had the same thing happen to him. Excluding his home planet being destroyed. But he managed to cope with it, and deal with it and he was even going to talk about it. This Fox McCloud was defiantly a strong character, "Maybe but I think I am going to turn it for tonight."

"Alright," Fox replied.

"Fox?" Krystal was about to leave the door of the lounge.

"What's up?" He got off the sofa and made eye contact with the vixen.

"What if I can't fire the gun? What if I need it most and I can't pull the trigger?"

"Believe me Krystal, when the time comes you'll know. You will make the right decision. Whatever that may be, it will be the right choice."

"Ok," with that she left the lounge and headed toward the red fox's room.

Fox lay down on the sofa. His head still hummed with activity from the latest mission and his new team mate Krystal. Perhaps in time they would become more then just team mates, but fro now they had just met. A whisper came to his ear, the exact same on that had come to him when he was on K6, "Good night Mr. McCloud,"

Fox opened his eyes and without moving his head was looking around the room for the source of the warm breath of the voice. The vulpine closed his eyes then said allowed talking to no one but the air, "Fox, Fox is fine."


End file.
